#in the donghua you get to see his eyes go red when he does it and it is WONDERFUL

[azems-familiar]

I am This Close to watching the untamed

So if you want to perhaps yell about it or something (since you’ve gotten me into stuff that way before) that could be cool idk

OH MY GOD PLEASE WATCH IT

okay to start with. the live action show is very good and a great place to start but it has some important differences from the novel and the donghua (animated show). i personally prefer a combination of cql (the untamed/the live action, that's the acronym i'll be using for it from now on) and the donghua; the novel suffers a lot of lost in translation effect and whatnot and i personally dislike the way the relationship is built in several places in it as opposed to how the adaptations do it, but it's definitely still worth reading. (dm me on discord if you want a copy of a pretty good fan translation of the novel and also like, a link to a place you can watch the donghua, btw.) other problems with cql: censorship hits the live action the hardest and their budget was i'm pretty sure basically nonexistent (they very clearly spent most of it on the costumes and the props, which you know what, the costumes are fucking stunning so great choice). so they changed the worldbuilding some and like.... the fight scenes? are really not good. they're really not good. also the special effects are universally pretty bad. it can make watching some parts of it difficult to get through, and there are some plot elements that are changed as well that i dislike, and a lot of the moral greyness of the original story had to get removed because again, censorship issues (if you want the most accurate, non-morally-whitewashed take first, you'll want to start with the novel, which is also what has the explicitly gay stuff). it's also not explicitly gay - but the actors played it as gay and there are multiple marriage metaphors and holy fuck like. honestly. there doesn't need to be a kiss or a confession or anything it's REALLY FUCKING GAY.

what cql excels in is its character interactions. the acting is absolutely stunning, the soundtrack is beautiful, and every single scene is just done with so much heart and emotion in it. so definitely keep that in mind going into it. i've watched it all the way through i think 3 or 4 times and i still keep seeing new fun details in the background that i hadn't noticed before.

the donghua, on the other hand, has an absolutely stunning art style, very very good voice acting, the worldbuilding and plot are more accurate to the book, and the magic and combat scenes are much more realistic for a fantasy and the powers they have. however, it, especially specifically the third and final season, is very rushed (and it has its own plot changes to fit how much they had to condense things, mostly just in the second half of season 3) and excludes some details, so it can be confusing if you don't know what you're seeing first. i recommend either watching cql or reading the novel first, then watching the donghua!

in terms of like, actual fandom stuff! so the main character of mdzs is, obviously, Wei Wuxian. i'm not sure how much you know but he's like. an incredibly ADHD man with horrible self-worth issues (despite being arrogant as hell) and a very strong sense of justice who is extremely brilliant and goes through a shitton of tragedy. he is known for inventing a viable form of necromancy, which is considered incredibly heretical and, among other things, gets him killed, and then gets him resurrected, so you know. pros and cons. he does magic by playing the flute. he is a disaster bisexual and also a bit of an alcoholic (okay a lot of an alcoholic) and i love him. his love interest is stoic and serious and incredibly autistic-coded and has been in love with him since they were teenagers and literally wrote him a love song. the two of them get trapped in a cave together and have to kill an ancient corrupted divine monster without weapons. it's very romantic. wei wuxian as a younger teenager is basically the epitome of a child pulling a girl's pigtails because he has a crush and is desperate for attention.

anyway, i'm not sure how much you know about the plot, but there's two timelines going on - the present and the past. the present is after wei wuxian is resurrected, and he and lan wangji (the love interest, in case you haven't picked up on the names yet - everyone has like two or three names and it can be hard to tell them apart at first) are basically going on a fun little murder mystery quest while also babysitting a bunch of teenagers which then abruptly devolves into politics, murder, more politics, and more murder. the past on the other hand goes from a high school definitely-not-a-romance to a goddamn war drama to politics and back to. hm. not exactly a war drama anymore but i'm really not sure how to describe everything that happens after a certain event. it's all very much a tragedy and the real "villain" of the story (which is less obvious in cql, again because of moral whitewashing due to censorship, though honestly i feel like they did a pretty good job of staying as true to the source material as they could all things considered, a whole lot of the scenes were word for word from the novel just slightly edited to fit the adjusted worldbuilding or plot changes) is the mob mentality, rumors and gossip and hearsay, and society itself!

lastly, because i am trying not to overwhelm you here, i am going to link you a couple great amvs i've found on youtube that will probably not make a lot of sense without context but will at least hopefully intrigue you?

and

and

the other one i really want to link i cannot because it definitely will make absolutely no sense without having watched the show and so you have to come talk to me when you've finished it so i can give it to you. also hey please feel free to come dm me on discord i Will ramble at length about this. especially about wwx he is my BLORBO and currently taking up residence in my brain. and also i need your live reactions if/when you start watching things oh my god

be glad it's almost 2 am and i'm still recovering from my covid booster or this would be even longer

[sidecharactersdomatter]

Thoughts I had during TGCF S1 Ep 1

Note: I have just seen all 12 episodes of Season 1, and I’m watching the entire donghua in English. Now here we go!

-Is that a Jiao? (The red palanquin the servants are carrying the woman in)

-Welp, it sure got gorey fast, and the Jiao has been dropped.

-That Origami Crane has seen better days, and it doesn’t even have eyes!

-Don’t go out there… don’t go out there… don’t go out there… don’t go out there… *Bride gets snatched* Okay, maybe you should’ve gone out there.

-An intense first start to a really interesting Donghua!

-Now I know not to skip the opening song this rewatch~!

-It’s an actual live Crane!

-It’s Laputa from Castle In the Sky (So need to actually finish that movie)

-It’s that town background from Genshin Impact (I literally know nothing about that game, and I’m not interested in playing it)

-It’s that bright light column from Legend of Korra (I haven’t seen the full series and I also don’t plan to watch it, Die Hard Last Airbender fan here)

-That was good animation, and the person running towards that light beam inspired a scene I’m writing my TGCF OCs Hong Hai and Qing Tao are running towards it to see who just ascended.

-Right after XL ascends, Hong Hai and Qing Tao then go, “Huh, Who is that?”  Then everybody yells at them, “PRINCE XIE LIAN!”

KOI FISH!

-Why didn’t they have the “Most likely to be cast out of Heaven reward” in my High School Yearbook, heck I could’ve gotten nominated that easy…

-I wasn’t kidding when I said Xie Lian’s English voice was like butter melting on warm fluffy flapjacks!

-Ling Wen is a savage!!!  She might the Chinese Equivalent of Athena or Themis.

-He has a fanclub?!?!?!  (I might be one of the members)

-The Official’s Okay!!! And a badass!

-So much property damage…

-Yeah it kind of is, (Hehehehehe Last airbender quote)

-They are using Yuan as currency right?

-Not like the Matrix movie right?

-That’s Lucien Dodge

-Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!

-Really?  He got banished over a tea break?!

-Woah they’re all just harsh on his return to heaven

-Those translucent viewing cloths…

-Is ‘mana’ how they say ‘qi’ in the Dub?

-Magic Sleeves of Holding!  count: 1

-Aw he thanked her!

-He said his famous line people “And may all taboos be shattered…”

-It’s the Jasmine Dragon Tea shop from The Last Airbender

-And ‘Hear no Evil’ to complete the iconic Monkey Trio!

-Awww it didn’t land on his finger like in Book 1 (Oh yeah, I’m reading the first two books I purchased JSYK)

-She has him on Speed Dial (DCAU Justice League reference)

-I love how they both looked really pissed off at him, yeah XL it’s totally the latter option.

-And then she hangs up on him

-Green tea!  (I hope it’s Jasmine)

-Hahahahaha he spat out his tea! XD

-Fu Yao, *Is sarcastic and rolls his eyes* Basically me: He’s just like me fr!

-Oh and they’re staring daggers at each other!

-FIGHT!  FIGHT!  FIGHT!

-Xie Lian’s such a peacemaker!

-The fact they responded in sync

-That explains the intense cold opening

-That mission briefing took the whole afternoon?

-See what did I say?  Ghostbusters!

-Those people in the wedding procession do not look professional at all

-Hey I’m half Asian with freckles, and I think I look awesome so I’m taking full offense at your insult!

-I think it’s an unwritten rule that Alejandro Saab is typecast as a self serving asshole I’ve seen it in Nomad of Nowhere

-Wow brutal Fu Yao

-Well I honestly hope he dies

-He ripped her skirt, freaking bastard!

-How is he doing that without mana????

-Yeah beat his ass!

-Thanks Nan Feng!

-Yeah you better run

-No!  Not the Tea shop!

-Aand he got slapped W H E E Z E!

-An abacus!

-The tea shop got fixed!

-Well Fu Yao ain’t wrong

-Hehehehehehe Dick joke XD

-Fu Yao’s giggle!

-“Go sweep the floors!” “What was that?” OOOOOHHHH!

-Don’t give him Cinderella’s chores Nan Feng!

-OOOHHHHH!

-FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

-That poor poor altar!

-Not only is it dirty but you’d be disrespecting the god it was offered to SMH

-Wow diplomacy really does solve everything

-He’s got her on Speed Dial too

-The fact that they stared at him together! XD

-Sees Bride!XL: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I’m Sorry XD!

-Honestly, Fu Yao, VALID.

-She fixed her skirt.

-Yeah right a few alterations, she totally fixed his make up calling it.

-Oh so now you’re smart enough to know Proverbs SMH again

-U said it Fu Yao,

-*Sees Bridesmaids NF and FY like* W H E E E Z E XD XD XD XD

-Is he smiling?  I can’t really tell in the animation.

-I can see why this episode literally came out on Halloween

-The Jiao got dropped again!

-So basically ancient Chinese zombies

-So that’s how he was able to last longer than the previous bride

-That Owl again

-There’s that butterfly

-Well there’s his groom (Not the Ghost groom obviously that’s for sure)

-Oooooohhhh! Backstory!

-Pass me the Aux cord!  You better not be playing mainstream garbage! *Turns on One Flower and One Sword and vibes like there’s no tomorrow*!

-My favorite song out of the Season 1 soundtrack!

-He’s out of the Jiao and in strong arms!

-Yep that’s totally gonna be important later

-Oh that’s how he was able to confront that bald jerk at the tea shop!

-That battle animation is so freaking fluid!  *Chef’s Kiss*

-There go the wolves

-That looks really bad, and it explains his bad reputation in heaven

-Aiaigasa!  AIAIGASA people!!!! *Fangirls like there’s no tomorrow!*

-It’s the same umbrella!

-I knew that kid was gonna be important, called it~

-I now pronounce you both husband and husband!  You may now kiss the gro- I mean, bride!  

-Don’t mind me, just gonna go jam to the rest of the ending!

[franniebanana]

CQL Rewatch - Ep 20

Iconic. Seeing Wei Wuxian back and better than ever is so satisfying! That flute playing that probably we’ve all forgotten about since the first two episodes becomes a repeating leitmotif throughout the series. It’s just as iconic as Wei Wuxian himself. And what I love about this shot here is how the light hits his eyes, and from this specific camera angle, it looks like a mask on his face! I just thought that was super cool. Whether it was intentional or not, I have no idea, but I like to think it was. I guess it’s like a reverse mask in this case—everything is hidden except his eyes.

It’s amazing how I only went without Wei Wuxian for like half an episode, yet it felt like so much longer. The emotional weight that he carries is so great that from all the characters searching for him, it feels like it’s actually been three months, instead of more like twenty-five minutes. And I think that’s something that we can feel in CQL but we can’t really feel in the book. Since the book is written in third person limited, we only see Wei Wuxian’s side of the story (I think that’s accurate, but it’s been a few months since I read it). That being the case, we never leave Wei Wuxian’s side, we never get to miss him being there. Of course the story is framed totally differently in the book and not in chronological order, even—lots of flip-flopping, which is fun but also a little confusing when you’re trying to keep track of a timeline.

I think part of what makes Wang Lingjao so creepy here is that her garish makeup is totally gone: her face is pale and ghoulish, with just the bright red blood trickling out of her nose, mouth, and cut on her cheek. I think they could have made her even more ghostly, but I like what they did for her apparition. It’s fun to see how fast Wen Chao cracks, though. He’s very much all bark and no bite—honestly, such a coward. On the one hand, it’s satisfying to watch him lose it, but on the other, it’s quite disturbing. I toe the line between enjoying it and being disgusted by it, but I love that CQL at least kept in this part of Wei Wuxian’s character. It’s like revenge, no matter how bloody, is okay in Chinese tv, but not the main character being kind of bad. I don’t get why they had to nerf his character to the point of absolving him of all guilt with everything that happened. I like a character who makes bad choices, but feels guilty for it, because that shows depth. Someone who bad things happen to because of the “real villain” aren’t as interesting to me. I think also that Xiao Zhan would have been amazing as the real Wei Wuxian from the book, had they adapted him that way. I also would have really, really loved to see the scene that is only really described to us (I think by Lan Xichen) where a distraught and delusional Wei Wuxian rejects Lan Wangji. Ugh, that would have been so heart-wrenching! Maybe in the donghua…sigh….

So this is important, I think. There was a point in the last episode where Jin Zixuan tells his cousin not to let the crows peck at the dead bodies of their enemies. In other words, don’t desecrate the bodies, even if they are the enemy. Of course, Jin Zixuan didn’t hold any personal grudges towards any of them, at least that we know of. Jiang Cheng certainly does. So even though Wang Lingjao is already dead by her own hand, he whips her with Zidian. Jiang Cheng is becoming more and more twisted by his anger and grief, which he never deals with in a healthy way. He wants revenge against those that have wronged him and his parents, and he really never stops seeking revenge throughout the story. First it’s against the Wens, and then it’s against Wei Wuxian. It’s a fairly slow descent, I think, over years, but I quite like watching him twist like this. While it’s fun and interesting watching someone repent and have a redemption arc, it’s also interesting watching them go the other way.

Lan Wangji seems to know, or at least suspect, that the person who has killed everyone in the Supervisory Office, including Wang Lingjao, is Wei Wuxian. A talent for using talismans (one of which Lan Wangji used himself to escape the Wens), someone who is seeking revenge against the Wen Clan—these things point to Wei Wuxian in his mind. He doesn’t want to say this to Jiang Cheng, he doesn’t even want to admit it himself, but he’s putting the pieces together. I think this is a frightening thought for him. On the one hand, he would be happy to find Wei Wuxian alive, but on the other, what state would they find him in? And what does it mean that he’s killed all these people singlehandedly? This isn’t the Wei Wuxian that Lan Wangji knows and cares so deeply about. This isn’t the man that Lan Wangji was ready to die for. I think his heart is very much filled with dread in this scene.

Jiang Cheng’s line is interesting too—basically, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Solid, really, but it does come with some problems in reality. The enemy of your enemy just might stab you in the back later. It’s a very simplistic view, but I think at this point, Jiang Cheng is just happy to see the Wens dead. There are a few he wants to kill himself, but he seems satisfied if they just die out, regardless of who does it.

I like seeing Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng team up for these few episodes, because it’s fun seeing how they each approach the situations. Jiang Cheng relies heavily on his heart and emotions, which I can totally identify with. He wants to find Wei Wuxian and he wants revenge on Wen Zhuliu and Wen Chao—those are his two priorities. And then Lan Wangji is definitely more of a logical person—he wants to get to the bottom of these deaths and find out who is the person with so much wicked energy that is doing all of it—and also, that person is probably Wei Wuxian, who he is very interested in finding. Here Jiang Cheng wants to rush after Wen Zhuiliu, just as he did when he went back to Lotus Pier. He’s very rash, while Lan Wangji is much more calm and collected. I mean, if it were me, I’d want to see if they would give up any information before I killed them.

And the reveal is…Wen Chao is fucking disgusting! I didn’t even want to screencap one of the close-ups, because I felt like I’d have to do a trigger warning for blood lol. Not really, though, because I never do, sorry. I love the looks on Jiang Cheng’s and Lan Wangji’s faces, though. Jiang Cheng is so horrified and Lan Wangji is just mildly shocked. I think the real thing is like, who are we dealing with here? Who is this monster who’s been murdering everyone in all these different ways? Who has made Wen Chao look like this? Is this friend or foe? Like I said, Jiang Cheng keeps saying that as long as the person is killing the Wens, he’s fine with it, but I think even he is bothered by this level of mutilation, even against someone he loathes.

It’s hilarious to me that Wen Zhuliu uses this tactic with Wen Chao. Oh, you’re going to insult me? I’m useless? Okay, bye! LOL. Also very amusing that this is really the last conversation they have with each other: this bickering that they’ve probably done over and over off screen. Wen Zhuliu stays by Wen Chao’s side, though, because he’s indebted to Wen Ruohan, of course. It would have been a neat twist to see Wen Zhuliu defect. And you still could have had a dramatic scene where Jiang Cheng chases him down.

I love it! I love it I love it I love it! The flute! This part is so well done (it’s still a little campy, of course, but that’s part of the charm)! I mean, as the audience, we all know who it is by now, but I love that they keep up the mystery because Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng still don’t know. They didn’t see him walk in. I just love this.

And shock. Jiang Cheng looks significantly more surprised. It had never crossed his mind that the person doing all this was actually Wei Wuxian, the very individual that he’s been searching for. Lan Wangji, on the other hand, doesn’t really look surprised. He looks a little surprised, okay—I’ll give you that. But I think most of what he’s feeling right now is the deep dread of being right. He wanted to be wrong, even when everything pointed to Wei Wuxian. I don’t think he wanted to believe that Wei Wuxian was capable of this, no matter how much he wanted to get revenge for what happened at Lotus Pier. I think there’s disappointment there too—how could he do such a thing? And I’ve giffed this scene with this quote: “He started to estrange her…And they became strangers who knew each other’s heart, so broken as they drifted apart” (Ana Claudia Antunes, Pierrot & Columbine). I think the realization here and a bit later for Lan Wangji that Wei Wuxian has become some other person is quite heartbreaking. He’s like a stranger to him, and that feeling of betrayal when you thought you knew a person inside and out—that hurts. It’s a deep-seated betrayal that Lan Wangji feels throughout this scene.

Oh, what I also like about this part is that when Wei Wuxian appears, neither one of them can look away. They are solely focused on him at this point.

He finally gets his revenge on Wen Zhuliu. And it’s great. They jump through the roof and he strings him up with Zidian. I can’t really say anything about it—Jiang Cheng needed to do this or he never would have been able to move on from Lotus Pier and his parents’ death.

WWX: Have I changed?

JC: No, not exactly.

I love that these lines are exchanged while the camera is on Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji already sees how Wei Wuxian has changed: the flute, the wicked energy, the almost senseless killing—none of these things are like the Wei Wuxian he’s come to love. And yes, I think love—and it hurts more because there is love. Lan Wangji wanted to walk the straight path with Wei Wuxian together, and he feels betrayed by what Wei Wuxian has done. Despite that, he still wants to help him. He implores Wei Wuxian to come back to Gusu with him so that they can help him and bring him back to the right path.

This whole scene feels like Lan Wangji isn’t even in the room, it’s like a private conversation between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji just happens to overhear. He says nothing. He lets Jiang Cheng ask a hundred questions while Wei Wuxian calmly answers them. Wei Wuxian smiles and laughs, he seems himself, and yet he isn’t. There’s something wrong and Lan Wangji grows more and more perturbed by it as the seconds pass by.

The tension in this scene is palpable. It’s painful, it’s sad, it’s really hard for me to watch. And yet, this is one of my favorite scenes. Lan Wangji is feeling a lot, and he’s held it all in until this moment here. He calls him Wei Ying, and then Wei Wuxian in turn addresses him first as Second Master Lan, and then as Hanguang-Jun, both very formal names. It’s not Lan Zhan anymore—there is no familiarity on Wei Wuxian’s part. I think part of that is his attempt to protect Lan Wangji from any association with him that might actually harm Lan Wangji and his reputation. He’s setting a boundary—a wall—between them. And then when Lan Wangji bites back, Wei Wuxian changes tack: he stars being informal with him again, he brings up how they were good friends, classmates, etc. But that’s not going to work because Lan Wangji is feeling pretty upset right now.

Lan Wangji is desperate, scared, and worried for Wei Wuxian. Sometimes when we’re feeling all that, it can come across as anger, and that becomes worse when someone is dismissive of those feelings. Wei Wuxian is definitely dismissive here. In their interactions, Lan Wangji rarely shows this much emotion, and instead of paying attention to that, Wei Wuxian brushes it off. Jiang Cheng shows that he cares by hugging Wei Wuxian, but Lan Wangji is different—he’s thinking ahead, he’s seeing what Wei Wuxian has started to mess with—demonic cultivation—which can destroy a person’s mind, and he’s terrified. His only thought is to take Wei Wuxian away and try to change him for the better. Of course, just like what his father did to his mother, this cannot work. Even if Lan Wangji manages to force Wei Wuxian to come with him, he won’t be able to control him. All Lan Wangji can really do is try to persuade him.

The intensity of Lan Wangji’s gaze here is something else. This is a man who is desperate to save the person he loves. He is really looking out for Wei Wuxian’s best interests here and is getting no support from Jiang Cheng. I don’t really know what’s going on in Jiang Cheng’s head right now, but he’s definitely finding Lan Wangji’s behavior offensive. He doesn’t understand that Wei Wuxian’s actions will lead to his ultimate destruction, while it is very clear to Lan Wangji. But all I can do here is bring up how they viewed the person who was killing all the Wens earlier, before they even knew who it was. Lan Wangji felt very unnerved by it: he was disturbed by the talismans and disturbed by the various manners of death, while Jiang Cheng’s stance always was that it didn’t matter because the person was clearly on the same side—a dead Wen is a dead Wen no matter who is behind it. And his opinion doesn’t change even after he finds out. It’s not important to him how Wei Wuxian was able to kill all those people. He asks the questions, but he isn’t interested in really hearing the answer. On the contrary, I think Lan Wangji is very interested in those answers, but he wants to hear about it in a controlled environment. He doesn’t want Wei Wuxian to go back to Yunmeng, where he will essentially live with free-rein without boundaries.

As for cinematography, I love how Wei Wuxian holds up his flute here, setting up a literal boundary between him and Lan Wangji. Not only do you have Jiang Cheng creating that wall with his sword, you also have Wei Wuxian. What I mean is, it’s not only Jiang Cheng who wants to keep Lan Wangji out. Wei Wuxian is drawing a line here too: he wants Lan Wangji to stay out of his business. And this morphs into, what happens at this place is not Gusu Lans’ business—it only concerns Yunmeng Jiang Sect.

We all know Wei Wuxian is an arrogant person, but his arrogance and ignorance here is truly stunning. Lan Wangji tells him point-blank that he won’t be able to control this energy if he uses demonic cultivation, and Wei Wuxian does everything but laugh at him. I enjoy this and I hate it at the same time, because Lan Wangji is just fucking worried, you know? And maybe he doesn’t express himself well, but he’s shocked to see Wei Wuxian here, shocked that he’s responsible for all this—he can’t stay calm and collected under these conditions.

In just a few minutes, Wei Wuxian says that he and Lan Wangji are good friends and that Lan Wangji should treat him better, as well as “Who do you think you are? What I do is none of your business.” I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist. This scene here, with their faces so close to each other, kills me. This is absolute betrayal for Lan Wangji. It’s as if everything they had built together—all the respect, the affection, the comradery—is gone. The Wei Wuxian that he knew is gone.

I love the way this shot is framed, with Wei Wuxian staring after Lan Wangji, and then Wen Chao pleading, “Forgive me, forgive me.” So apt, because I think Wei Wuxian does feel bad here, I think he feels guilty. I think part of him really missed Lan Wangji and wanted to see him. I think he even knows that what Lan Wangji is doing is out of concern for him over anything else. But I also think Wei Wuxian’s pride gets in the way of that, and his desire for revenge, and even his desire for things to go back to normal. More than anything, Wei Wuxian wants to return to Yunmeng, to his shijie, to be able to live normally again, whatever that really means, because of course everything has changed. Nothing will ever be as it was again. More importantly, he has changed, and can never go back to the person he was before, the person who played so hard, the person who shirked his responsibilities and fooled around in classes, the person who shamelessly teased and flirted with Lan Wangji. That Wei Wuxian is gone. I think Wei Wuxian knows he’s hurt Lan Wangji and does feel bad about it, but he knows he has to push him away to protect him. He doesn’t want to drag Lan Wangji down with him, he feels it’s better this way. And I think, even though CQL!Wei Wuxian does have feelings for Lan Wangji quite a bit earlier than in the book, you can see the one-sided love here, in Lan Wangji’s aggressive behavior as he attempts to save this person he loves. Lan Wangji isn’t willing to give up on him, whereas Wei Wuxian is more prepared to let him go—to push him away to protect him. That’s love too, I suppose, but it’s a love that is meant to be from afar—a sad love, not a passionate one, not a desperate one, not the one that Lan Wangji feels for him.

This is so heartbreaking for Lan Wangji, in part, because they had such a special relationship before. Prior to this, Wei Wuxian prided himself in that he and Lan Wangji went on night hunts together—the clan didn’t matter, whether that was unorthodox or not. And now to see him use his clan as a barrier between them…it’s quite a betrayal. Lan Wangji feels so hurt, so at a loss—he wonders what could he have done differently to prevent this, he blames himself.

This is one of my favorite episodes because of this reunion scene. What you expect is some great reunion, the hugging between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, maybe a smile from Lan Wangji because he’s really happy to see him. But instead, you get pain. You get a Jiang Cheng hugging Wei Wuxian, but Wei Wuxian not even returning the hug (he only raises his arm to signal that he wants to break apart). You get a heated confrontation between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian, one that is “fondly” thought of as their break-up scene. I love the drama, I love the pain, I love the angst, I love the dichotomy between Yunmeng Jiang and Gusu Lan, I love that this is the start of more tension between Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji, I love everything about it. The “us and them” dynamic that starts here is so great, and then to see it slowly unravel throughout the next ten episodes, to see Wei Wuxian’s and Jiang Cheng’s relationship fall apart, while Wei Wuxian’s and Lan Wangji’s relationship begins to strengthen again--I eat it up. It’s like my candy. Anyway, I’m excited for what’s to come, excited to talk more wangxian and how it compares to the book (from my dwindling knowledge, that is)! Happy that you all are coming along this ride with me!

Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |

[besanii]

i scream whenever i see double happiness update!!!! just a request if it isn't too much trouble: i remember fengjiu cooking for donghua to try to gain his affections! will wwx do the same? 😂

Main fic: part one | part two | part three | part four | part five | part six | part seven |

Extras: extra 01: siblings | extra 02: the wedding night

Wei Wuxian stares down at the fish on the chopping board with apprehension. What is he supposed to do with it? Chop it up? Slice it? Throw it in the wok and hope for the best? He picks up the knife with an audible swallow.

“Wei Ying? Is everything alright?” 

He conceals a sigh of relief when Lan Wangji comes up behind him to check on his progress, beaming up at Lan Wangji while holding the knife by his ear, blade pointing forward.

“Cleaning the fish, like you said!” he says brightly. Lan Wangji raises an eyebrow. 

“Are you planning on stabbing it clean?” he asks. He holds out his hand. “Give me the knife.”

Wei Wuxian obediently hands over the knife with a show of great reluctance. He had told Lan Wangji that he can’t cook! Why does he insist on torturing both of them like this? No one will thank him for it. He’ll see soon enough.

“I’m only good at eating food, Lan Zhan,” he says with loud sigh. “I guess I really don’t have the talent for cooking.”

He juts out his lower lip and looks up at Lan Wangji with the air of a child being scolded. Lan Wangji stares at him for a long moment with an unreadable expression and sighs. Wei Wuxian cheers inwardly. Maybe now he’ll give up trying to get him to cook this stupid fish—

“It’s never too late to learn,” Lan Wangji says. “I’ll teach you.”

—What?

The next thing he knows, he’s crowded up against the kitchen bench with Lan Wangji pressed up against his back. Large hands cover his own, wrapping his fingers around the handle of the knife.

“Wha-at are you doing?” Wei Wuxian says in a panicked whisper. 

Why is he whispering anyway? It’s not like there is anyone else in the kitchen! Lan Wangji hums, right in his ear, low and amused, and Wei Wuxian’s knees almost give out right then and there. 

“The best way to learn is through demonstration,” Lan Wangji says.

“I thought the whole idea of demonstration was for you do show me what to do,” Wei Wuxian says through gritted teeth. 

His face is unbearably hot now and his hands are starting to tremble. Why does Lan Wangji have to smell so good?

“I am,” Lan Wangji replies, unperturbed. His hands tighten over Wei Wuxian’s briefly and guides it over to the fish. “I’m told a more…hands-on approach is most effective in helping the student retain the lesson.”

Liar! Wei Wuxian doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but he’s definitely not retaining any information. He’s vaguely aware of his hands moving with Lan Wangji’s, and the sliminess of the fish as they slice and clean it in deft movements, but it’s all drowned out in the sensation of Lan Wangji’s arms around his body, and his deep voice in his ear.

An eternity and a half later, Lan Wangji steps away. Wei Wuxian wakes up from his daze with a confused sound.

“What…?”

Lan Wangji smiles. “We’re done.”

“We’re…done?” he repeats dumbly, and then looks down. The fish is cleaned, sliced and seasoned. “Huh?”

“We’ll need to fry it,” Lan Wangji says, heating up the oil in the wok with a wave of his fingers. “And prepare the sauce.”

He doesn’t ask for Wei Wuxian’s help again, for which Wei Wuxian is grateful because he doesn’t think he can move. He just stands there and watches as Lan Wangji slides the fish into the hot oil with practiced ease and then fishes it out piping hot and perfectly golden, onto a plate. The smell is glorious and Wei Wuxian’s mouth waters. And then finally—finally the deliciously vibrant red sauce is poured over the top and the entire plate is set on the bench before him.

“Would you like to taste it?” Lan Wangji asks him, already handing him a pair of chopsticks as he does. Wei Wuxian takes them eagerly.

“Since Lan-er-dianxia made it, of course I’m going to try it!” He carefully takes a morsel and puts it in his mouth. His eyes drift closed almost immediately and he lets out a happy whine. “Oh, oh, that’s so good!”

“Is it?”

Something in the tone of Lan Wangji’s voice sends a shiver down Wei Wuxian’s spine. He opens his eyes, the chopsticks still in his mouth, to find Lan Wangji staring at him, amber eyes dark and hot. 

“Is it really that good, Wei Ying?” Lan Wangji asks again, in that same tone. Wei Wuxian nods quickly. 

“Y-You should try some!” he says. He takes another portion and holds it up to Lan Wangji’s mouth. “Here!”

Lan Wangji’s eyes widen in surprise; Wei Wuxian realises what he’s doing and blushes. He starts pulling his hand back when Lan Wangji leans forward quickly and takes the offered morsel into his mouth. It brings their faces close together and Wei Wuxian’s heart is about to beat right out of his chest at the heat in Lan Wangji’s eyes. He releases the breath he’d been holding as Lan Wangji releases the chopsticks to chew and swallow delicately.

“Yes, you’re right,” Lan Wangji says. “It’s delicious.”

He needs to get out of here now.

“You should have more then!” Wei Wuxian tells him quickly, holding out the chopsticks to him. “Here, don’t let me stop you!”

Lan Wangji doesn’t even bat an eyelid.

“My arms are tired from cooking,” he says. “I don’t think I can lift the chopsticks.”

He cocks his head slightly and raises his eyebrows. Wei Wuxian hopes they get stuck on his hairline permanently. Stupid, perfectly shaped eyebrows. Lan Wangji clears his throat and looks at him.

“Well?” he asks.

He stares down at the fish, all lovely and crispy and fragrant and practically calling his name, and sighs in defeat.

Wei Wuxian ah, Wei Wuxian. You must bear it for the sake of the delicious food!

// buy me a ko-fi //

[myfriendsarerealidiots]

Comparing Adaptations

‘Kay so I went on one of my whims again and did something stupid. Couple weeks or so ago, I wasn’t really in the mood to watch anime so I opened up Netflix and watched a Cdrama that I wanted to watch for a while now.

That Cdrama was ‘The Untamed’ which, prior to me watching it and doing said whim, I thought was just your typical historic Cdrama. Oh boy I was wrong. As I was watching it, I was thinking to myself, “This show’s really selling itself off as BL.” Which, I found out after finishing it was because it is BL. Hah...and that was just the start of it.

As I was doing my ‘Post-show research,’ I found out that it was based of a novel, called ‘Mo Dao Zu Shi’or as translated by the people on the internet as ‘Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.’ Said novel had 2 more adaptations along with ‘The Untamed’ which were a manhua and a donghua. So me being me, I decided to watch the donghua adaptation and read both the og novel and manhua.

So how I went through this was...

The Untamed (2019)

The Donghua aka Anime I guess

The Manhua which I read while having class (such a responsible student aren’t I)

The original novel

All hail this person who has too much free time on her hands.

Anyways, as it says on the tin, I’ll be comparing the 4 adaptations/versions of the story and see what changes between them as well as the pros and cons. (Wow I sound so professional)

Some background of myself just to avoid confusion

I am not a mega hardcore Fujoshi. I don’t really enjoy reading smut, nor am I old enough to do so bear that in mind

I have 7 years worth of Chinese lessons under my belt which means I barely understand a thing and that I can get some of the jokes like how Wei Ying’s sword is called ‘Sui Bien’ and it’s funnier to hear in Chinese. In other words, compared to like actual Chinese people who live in China, I pretty much have the knowledge of a 10 year old.

The versions of the Manhua and Novel that I read were translated in English so somethings might have been lost in translation.

I have a bit of a goldfish brain so forgive me if I wrote something wrong or forgot the name of a certain character, most likely I will look it up to correct it but if I don’t...well sorry.

I am writing my opinions on each version as I finish them, so if they don’t link up to the original that’s the reasoning behind it.

All of these are my opinions and thoughts on the story. You are not entitled to follow them if you disagree. I personally believe that everyone has a voice of their own and they should use it. (Even though I don’t half of the time.)

Slight Spoiler Warning

I will be breaking down some of the scenes and characters for my comparisons so please keep that in mind.

The Untamed (2019)

As this was my first exposure to the story, I didn’t know what to expect. I loved everything about it except for the fact that literally half of the show was spent in the past, building context for what was happening in the present.

The characters were lovable and all had distict personalities, especially Wei Ying and Lan Zhan which I guess makes sense since they’re the main characters (their actors are also cute and have good chemistry.) Speaking of characters, Yanli has a more forward role in the story here compared to the other versions. The way certain characters were introduced was different too. Since it’s live action, it’s also harder to show things like extreme blushing and such so it makes Lan Zhan look very stoic and way more unexpressive here than in the other versions.

The soundtrack is nice to listen to, especially with the 2 mains singing the theme song together it’s so cute and gives it another meaning in itself. Although, I do wonder how that poor bamboo flute Wei Ying made in like 2 mins plays decent sounding music. Chen Qing(is this the name of it?), the flute he uses after his trip to the Burial Grounds has the same sound quality as that bamboo flute which is just, “how???”

They took out most of the extreme BL!!! I feel like that is the biggest difference between this version and all the rest. I know they did that to appeal to more people but it does remove some of the context to things. That doesn’t mean the moments that were kept in weren’t cute though. It did make the pair look more plantonic than romantic.

As for the story itself, as a story on its own, it’s nice, as an adaptation that’s where the line gets blurry but it leans more towards the good side. They did indeed change some things, made them work better with the medium than if they didn’t.

An example I can place is the mask. Where the other versions used white make up with oddly placed red circles around the eyes, this one used a mask instead. I agree with the choice they made, seeing as they removed the fact that Mo Xuanyu was homosexual and so the make up wouldn’t make sense. It also looks nicer than what I imagined what could’ve happened with they kept with the make up. They do make a reference to this in the show when Jin Ling and Wei Ying have a conversation in Carp Tower. “You’ve seen my face right?” “How do I know? Your face is always caked in make up or covered by that mask.”

Another issue I had which I’ll touch on later was the first episode—I had no idea what was going on for those 40 minutes of screentime.

Donghua

As of writing this post, season 3 of this has yet to come out.

My first reaction to this was “Man, the animation’s pretty, and they made Wei Ying look scarier.” Watching stuff at 12 in the morning isn’t the best thing but that’s what I do.

Anywho, this version made Wei Ying really attracted to going down the path of ‘evil’ compared to the other versions. I don’t really understand why they made this change...but they did so we have to deal with that. And his eyes glow red!! It makes him look scary and cool at the same time. I love it!!

The transitions between certain events were a bit weird to say the least. For example, at the end of episode 2/3 Wei Ying gets forcibly dragged into the Cloud Recesses and the episode ends there. By the next episode, we’re 16/23/13 however many years in the past. This makes it really confusing for someone who hasn’t watched or read any other version of the story. It definitely made me confused and I already finished one.

While ‘The Untamed’ told us everything in one long flashback, the donghua broke it up into small chunks placed whenever information was needed. I don’t think that was a good idea, but then I also think it was a better decision than what they did for the Cdrama. As I watched this adaptation, I found myself confused from time to time because what happened in the prior episode didn’t always match what happened in the current episode like I mentioned earlier.

As for the artstyle, personally, I think some of the characters look similar minus the hair. However, I do like the little ways they made Lan Zhan express his feelings towards Wei Ying.

Speaking of which, when I first saw them together in this version in the forest near the Goddess Temple, I had to do a bit of a double take because of the height difference which wasn’t so evident in ‘The Untamed’. I soon found out that Lan Zhan was taller than Wei Ying before and after he gets reincarnated(?) Prior, it was just a small gap of 2cm which later turned to 6cm after possessing Mo Xuanyu.

I didn’t notice their height gaps while watching ‘The Untamed’ because Wei Ying’s actor, Xiao Zhan, is taller than Lan Zhan’s actor, Wang Yi Bo by about 2 inches which is like 5 cm? and so they had to do some weird thing with platforms to make Xiao Zhan look shorter in comparison.

Soundtrack wise, I personally think that ‘The Untamed’ was better in that sense. Where it had an amazing souding flute, this one had minor earrape in a nutshell.

This version made itself, in my eyes look more like a historical fighting anime as opposed to the BL vibes I was getting from ‘The Untamed’ and the other versions. They added a lot of action scenes and made the mystery more interesting for me. Along with this, the overall look and feel of this made it seem like it came from a completely different source material.

Manhua

Small FYI, as of writing this post the Manhua is at 147 Chapters.

(I should’ve kept up the trend and got a screenshot from that scene in the Manhua but I didn’t so here we are with gay rabbits.)

As your local internet friend who reads more manga than normal books nowadays, I enjoyed reading the manhua and finished it in a couple days.

Compared to the first 2 versions here, these last 2 are both things that you have to read to get through, albeit one has pictures and one doesn’t.

While normally, one would read silently, I like listening to music while I do. And seeing as the OST of ‘The Untamed’ sounds really nice, I listened to it while reading both the manhua and novel when I could.

This one brought out the BL elements that were missing from the first 2. They gave Wei Ying and Lan Zhan a lot of kissing or just straight up affectionate scenes which I think ties in with the general theming of the original novel more.

As this one is probably the closest of the adaptations to the original, it’s the least confusing to read, although that might’ve been influenced by my experiencing the story for the third time at this point. I say that, however, there were many story elements that weren’t present in either one prior to this.

Examples this can be seen with their collecting of body parts that belonged to the former Nie Sect Leader. In ‘The Untamed’ they find the sword spirit which guides them through the rest of the story. In the Donghua adaptation, they get the arm, but also get the head of the the Jin with the hundred holes curse which was an original addition. Here, they get the arm from Mo Manor, find the other one then find the torso and so on before finding the head in Jin GuangYao’s possession.

The flashbacks in this version were also executed really well, in my opinion, as it doesn’t feel super confusing while reading it and it gives just enough information to help the events unfold. It also gives us a chance to see how much of an ass(sorry) Wei Ying was when he was the Yiling Patriach from his own perspective as well as give us a moment of WangXian in the middle of all that chaos.

Novel

Here’s a picture of gay rabbits for everyone.

At this point, I was switching between the novel and the Manhua to read whichever one I wanted at any given time which might have blurred my sense of what belonged in each one so I’ll try my best to make sure.

Since this one is the original source material, it was clear from the get go that this will be the one with the least confusing version of events and the most amount of detail.

I was surprised on how close the manhua and ‘The Untamed’ was to the novel. Although, the former condensed the mystery to fit within the timeframe while the latter hasn’t finished just yet.

Personally, I like this author, and will probably read more of her works further down the line. Even though the version I read was in english, I still could feel the meaning behind certain aspects which I think shows her skill as an author.

The novel clearly shows the mischief that goes through Wei Ying’s head and their gradual (I say gradual but I think Lan Zhan just snapped) change of attitudes towards each other.

Arc One- Mo Manor

Past here I’ll break down the first arc of each one because I think all of them did it in relatively different ways. Be warned for spoilers if you haven’t watched or read all of them.

The Untamed (2019)

Out of all of these versions, this one definitely had me scratching my head in confusion the most even after watching it a second time once I finished the entire show.

As the only version that had the curse issued at the start as a moving factor of the story as well as the Yin Iron which was specifically made for this version, it didn’t explain enough at the start.

There were many things I could say were wrong about this beginning, from starting at a flashback to not properly introducing us to our characters but the biggest problem in my mind was the lack of explanation at the present.

Like I mentioned, starting at a flashback is a terrible idea as it gives the viewer high expectations only for it to be crushed the second it ends. Here, it shows a small portion of the battle at the Nightless City without much context then it quickly changes to 16 years later with a seemingly random group of people.

Another issue is the amount of useless characters who were introduced. In the other versions, there were only 2 Lan disciples who were given names and were introduced properly while here there were more than I want to count. Add to that the one telling stories about the YiLing Patriarch and the weird guy walking around with a flag, and you got yourself total confusion.

Donghua

This one was slightly less confusing to watch. As it starts with a clip of Wei Ying commanding corpses which matches the overall feel of the donghua. The rumors that he died stretched over the time skip and we meet this version of Mo Xuanyu who is caked with make up, whether or not he was a cut-sleeve (gay) in this version, I forgot.

It fully explains the curse and instead of having a couple of Lan disciples just standing there watching, we get to focus on the 2 important ones, Lan Sizhui and Lan JiYing. It gives us a slightly deeper insight into Wei Ying’s mind, as he states ‘you got the wrong one,’ just after being reincarnated, indicating that he isn’t as vicious as painted by the first few minutes of the show. Like the other versions, they also show how he considers the cons of using his demonic abilities and that Sizhui would probably tell on him to Lan Zhan, meaning that Sizhui was a keen, observant young man.

Manhua and the Novel

As for the introductions, these two were very similar. Both have the rumors of the Yiling Patriarch across the screen as we get further down the story and meet our main character.

It gets the details from the Donghua adaptation and mixes it with more information to create a more detailed account of what was happening, also making this Wei Ying seem smarter compared to his counterparts in other versions. He also hesitates more on showing his abilities, knowing that he’s going to be caught if he does.

Final Thoughts

As of writing this, I’m only halfway through the novel but it covers the portion until where the manhua is currently at. I would finish reading it before posting this but it would take too long and probably make this post even longer than it currently is, which isn’t such a good idea. If I had much more patience and effort I would really like to break down each arc and their differences from one another but I can’t be bothered right now. (Sorry)

I can safely say that in terms of adaptations, ‘The Untamed’ is relatively close to the novel, albeit a very condensed version. As flashback filled as it is, it wasn’t very confusing to watch past the first two episodes.

The Donghua adaptation takes several liberties, going more of an action oriented route instead of the calmer more, I wouldn’t say love but character oriented novel.

The manhua is definitely the closest to the novel, so if you really don’t want to read a lot of words, and I mean a lot of words, then go ahead and read it.

What else do I have to say...if you’re new to the story, welcome, if you’re a veteran who’s been here longer than me, sorry for taking up space on your feed. And congrats for making it to the end.

[ibijau]

Oh, I love your Worst Engagement AU. I can't wait for Xichen saving Huaisang from water ghouls in Caiyi Town from the perspective of your AU! Hihihihihi~~~~

ok so, I have like half a second of hesitation because that amazing, beautiful, ultimate Xisang scene is only in the donghua, and I wanted to keep this in novel canon. But you know what? You know what? I love that scene and fuck canon.

ok, warning for... mild infidelity, on a technical sense? I mean, it’s not like they’re really emotionally together. Definitely as far as nhs is concerned. And warning for some quick discussion of the possiblity of underage characters having sex, I guess.

Caiyi town isn't exactly the most fun place in the world, but being anywhere outside of the Cloud Recesses feels like a blessing, so Nie Huaisang doesn't complain. It's a little bothersome being forced to carry his sabre around, but that too is a small price to pay for a reprieve from rules.

They are, technically, under Lan Xichen's supervision, and they are in Caiyi town to hunt down... monsters of some kind. Nie Huaisang honestly didn't pay much attention, and even if he had, he knows it wouldn't help him much. What he does know is that Lan Xichen has briefly abandoned them to go secure some boats for their Night Hunt, which means for at least the next half hour, Nie Huaisang is free.

Mostly, he's free to hang out with Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian and complain that there's not much to do, but it's still freedom. Besides, if his plan works well, he'll create his own entertainment later.

“Why did you even agree to come?” Jiang Cheng grumbles when he gets tired of Nie Huaisang whining about the lack of interesting shops.

Nie Huaisang shrugs, but his eyes go down the street, toward the Lans boys who came along and are trailing a little behind them. One in particular happens to be looking at him, although he turns away as soon as their eyes meet, his cheeks colouring.

“No particular reason,” Nie Huaisang says, as if he isn't determined that he'll have given away his first kiss by the time this stupid Night Hunt is over. “I just thought it'd be fun to see how it feels with nicer company.”

“Night Hunts are not a game,” Jiang Cheng points out.

“But they can be fun,” Wei Wuxian quickly adds, grinning. “Maybe you'll start liking them, and we can Night Hunt together again after we're done with classes here. Do you think your brother would let you come to Yunmeng sometimes?”

“Not unless I improve my cultivation a lot,” Nie Huaisang sighs, glancing behind again.

That same Lan boy meets his eyes with more intent this time, before saying something to his companions and drifting from their group. He goes into a small alley, and Nie Huaisang struggles not to grin. He wasn't sure the other one would actually dare to follow along his very shameless plan.

“You know, I've changed my mind about that candy shop we saw earlier,” Nie Huaisang suddenly announces. “I'll go grab some. If Lan gongzi is back before me, tell him I'll be right there, okay? I'll try not to take too long.”

“Oh, grab some for me too,” Wei Wuxian asks, throwing him some money. “We'll be around. Jiang Cheng, do you think we can fine a wine seller somewhere? We'll need something to celebrate our victory with!”

The two brothers start bickering about whether it is appropriate or not to already think of the aftermath of a Night Hunt when it could bring bad luck. Nie Huaisang quickly escapes, and makes his way to that alley.

He does buy some candies in the end, because it'd be odd if he didn't. They're far too sweet for his preferences, but it matters a little less when he gets to taste them on someone else's lips and tongue. 

Nie Huaisang, as it turns out, loves kissing. He suspected he would, or he wouldn't have bothered trying, but it really is a nice sensation, even with a clumsy boy whose name he still hasn't bothered to learn.

It's a shame that he won't get much of that once he's married, he thinks after that Lan boy has left the alley first so they won't be seen together. There's little chance that Lan Xichen would want to kiss him, so he'll have to get his fill before their marriage.

He might also try sex, he decides as he, too, finally leaves the alley. He doesn't think there's any real law against him tumbling into bed with someone else before he becomes tied for life to Lan Xichen, so it should be fine, if he can just convince someone to give him a chance. It can't be a girl, there's too much risk of a scandal. It can't be a Lan, that'd create too many problems down the line. Wei Wuxian could be a tolerable option perhaps, but he only looks at girls (and on occasions at Lan Wangji) so that's not going to work. Jiang Cheng is very attractive, but he's both too stuck up and too aware of inter-sect politics to touch the future husband of a future sect leader. Someone else then, someone pretty and self-important enough that he wouldn't care about upsetting Lan Xichen. Someone like...

Just as he is thinking about him, Nie Huaisang hears the voice of Jin Zixuan coming from the canal, followed by that of Wei Wuxian.

It is a gift, a talent that Wei Wuxian had, and it never ceases to amaze Nie Huaisang how his friend, somehow, always ends up bumping into the people who most dislike him. Lan Wangji, Jin Zixuan... Wei Wuxian seems to have a sixth sense to spot them, and for someone so smart, he's really stupid when it comes to realising he could just avoid them.

With a sigh, Nie Huaisang hurries in the direction of their voices. When he realises that these two are alone, without at least Jiang Cheng to keep them in check, he jumps on a small boat and hurries to take it between theirs. Someone has to avoid a diplomatic incident, and it's not going to be these two idiots and their overblown egos.

His peacekeeping efforts are mildly starting to work, or so Nie Huaisang tells himself. It soon stops to matter when a bunch of water bloated corpses spring from the canals and start attacking them.

It all goes very fast. One moment Nie Huaisang was trying to get Jin Zixuan to just calm down for five seconds, the next there's a huge, ugly, stinky creature trying to climb onto his boat. The weight of that thing is such that the other side of the boat starts rising from the water, forcing Nie Huaisang to cling to the sides so he doesn't fall into the monster's grasp.

“Help!” he cries out. “I'm going to fall, somebody help!”

But Wei Wuxian is off saving civilians, and Jin Zixuan is under attack by several water ghouls, so neither can intervene. Nie Huaisang closes his eyes and grasps the wood tighter, wondering if he might manage to unsheathe his sabre without falling, if he can let himself fall and try to strike at the ghoul on his way down. If he were any good as a cultivator, it'd be as easy as breathing, but he's never done anything like this, never had to hit anything scarier than a practice dummy, and that ghoul is big and...

While Nie Huaisang holds on to the boat and panics over what to do, someone joins him on the boat, so light on their feet that the movement barely registers, and with one smooth slash of their sword, they dispatch the ghoul. Immediately the boat falls back on the water with a splash, but Nie Huaisang doesn't even mind that he gets sprayed.

“Thank you!” he exclaims with a grateful smile that turns into a grimace when he wipes the water from his eyes and realises who saved him. “Lan gongzi?”

Of course it'd have to be him. Lan Xichen smiles down at him as if expecting to be praised for the rescue, not a single hair out of place, not a stain on his white robes. Nie Huaisang looks away, refusing to give him that pleasure. It doesn't matter in the end because Lan Xichen quickly leaves him alone to help the others deal with the rest of the creatures while Nie Huaisang sits on his boat, utterly useless.

When the fight is over, they all regroup on the bank of the canal to decide what to do. Nie Huaisang expects Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian to be excited that they got to fight and show off already, but instead he finds them oddly serious. They seem like entirely different people all of a sudden, like real cultivators instead of the two goofy kids he's grown used to play with. It's an unpleasant reminder that with them too, there's a divide he can't ever expect to cross. Nie Huaisang is surrounded by amazing people, while he struggles with flying on his sabre for even an incense's stick duration.

He tries to remind himself that he has qualities too, that he doesn't need to play by their rules, that his friends like him even without any cultivation capacity to speak of. It brings him little comfort, especially when he hears Lan Xichen starts to explain how they will proceed from then on, and he realises that he doesn't know how to do most of the things his fiancé is speaking about.

As if guessing his thoughts, Lan Xichen suddenly turns towards him with a look of doubtful appraisal on his face.

“Huaisang, since you're not up to fight after all, just wait for us here,” he advises.

A second ago, Nie Huaisang was ready to beg to be left behind. Now that Lan Xichen is the one demanding it, he feels for the first time in his life an intense desire to really take part in a Night Hunt.

“Lan-gege has so little trust in me,” he complains with a pout. “How am I ever going to improve if I never get to try? I want to try. I'm sure my brother also would want me to, Lan-gege,” he insists, putting as much emphasis as he dares on the nickname and... yes, just as he hoped, it appears to annoy Lan Xichen.

It annoys him so much that a touch of red appears on his cheeks. Just to have gotten a reaction out of his bothersome fiancé, Nie Huaisang is ready to put up with whatever it is people even do on Night Hunts. Between the kissing and making Lan Xichen flush in anger, this is quite possibly the best day of his life.

“This situation appears more serious than I realised when I invited you along,” Lan Xichen replies. “Of course I trust Nie gongzi to do better than what others might expect, but I do not think this is appropriate for a first Night Hunt.”

It's Nie Huaisang's turn to blush in embarrassment, and he glares at Lan Xichen for saying so casually, in front of so many others, that he's never been on a Night Hunt before. It's not exactly untrue, he's never done more than the sort of very easy stuff any child will do, and it all stopped around the time of the engagement because he was so bad and had become too much of an asset to be put at risk.

Just because it's true doesn't mean it needs to be shared.

“Then I will do as Lan-gege orders, of course,” Nie Huaisang says with a short bow. “Lan-gege always knows best, doesn't he?”

“Go wait for us at the inn,” Lan Xichen orders, apparently pleased with how easily his fiancé complies. “Hopefully we'll be back before sunset. Try to have fun if you can, but don't get in trouble.”

Nie Huaisang bites the inside of his cheeks and smiles as sweetly as he can, because there's people around and he knows better than to publicly humiliate his fiancé. But he'll get revenge for this someday, and for everything else as well.

And what better revenge can there be than to make that annoyingly pure and perfect Lan boy marry someone who has already tried dual cultivation?

Besides, it's not like Lan Xichen is ever going to touch him anyway, so he'll have to get his fun where he can get it, while he can get it.

[threelivesthreeworlds]

@mcheang said   :    First off, I wouldn’t say Jiheng was abandoned by the demon clan so much as she abandoned them when she left them to pick up the pieces of the botched wedding. She knew she would be exiled and chose to run away anyway. Second, it was never really stated that Dong Hua would stop visiting her after he was married. He would still have to check on the poisoned daughter of his trusted general and make sure she survived.

The admins always think of a few quotes to go in each essay as textual evidence, and admittedly with these next few quotes the previous essay would’ve likely been more complete - we just don’t want to overload our audience with paragraphs and paragraphs of text. So, let’s consider this the Ji Heng Essay, Pt. 2, feat. some Interesting Narrative Foils / Parallels, because I think we don’t actively recognize how similar Ji Heng can be to our leads, and I think sometimes we have to directly look at that and to look within ourselves to figure out why we let our favorite characters off, but we go hard on Ji Heng forever. You’ll have to bear with me - this carries a lot of extra analysis of the text per point addressed, but I believe a somewhat more thorough exploration is required.

TW SUICIDE MENTION, TW DUB CON MENTION, TW GASLIGHTING, for mention of certain canon events, proceed with caution

TO THE FIRST POINT, we have to address, in further detail, what happened after Ji Heng ran away from the wedding. When Xiao Yan tells Feng Jiu about the story Ji Heng told him of what’s happened since they went their separate ways, he does say that she stayed away from the demon clan of her own accord:

Feng Jiu massaged her shoulder, and looked a touch confused: "What does that have to do with Princess JI Heng?"

Xiao Yan was even more confused. "Did I never tell you, that when Ji Heng ran away with that little guard Minsu, they eloped to Fanyin Valley?" He scratched his scalp, the face as beautiful as autumn flowers under the moon touched with a tint of red: "Actually, I only found out half a year ago. All this time, Ji Heng's true love Minsu was a girl who was dressed as a man, and she liked her brother. After she figured that out, Ji Heng couldn't deal with the shock and fought with Minsu, and they separated, but she felt that she was too embarrassed to return to the demon clan, and so she stayed in Fanyin Valley to be the court musician."

However - later, at the end of the book when Chonglin goes to ask the Red Demon Clan about Ji Heng and where she is, he gets this answer:

When Chonglin went to meet with the Red Demon Clan, Lord Xuyang said that after the incident three hundred years ago when his sister ran away with Minsu, the Red Demon Clan had already banished her, and Ji Heng had no contact with the Red Demon Clan since then. Their clan could not tell where she was now.

If anything, then, I think it would be considered a mutual abandonment. For, drastically different reasons, I might add. Ji Heng’s reasons for staying away from home appear to be pride - that she ran away with someone who ended up not being in love with her, who ended up to be lying to her this whole time. That she’s become “pitiful,” because she didn’t follow through on the marriage her brother arranged for her even if she didn’t want it, and now she’s unhappy. Put yourself in her shoes for a minute - and because Admin Ro is both Asian the queen of analogies, imagine that you’ve decided against everyone’s wishes in your family that you were going to be an actor. They all told you you’re going to starve, and, what do you know, they were right. You are in fact out of work and poor. Would you go home, to a chorus of I-told-you-so? To a chorus of people more pleased that they’re right about you than they are willing to support your dream and what you want to do with your life?

Along that vein, her brother’s motivations for banishing her are likely more political. He arranged Ji Heng’s marriage to Donghua because he wanted the political ties to Heavenly Realm. And, in the aftermath of the elopement, in all likelihood he’s trying to disown Ji Heng as fast as possible to avoid it being a reflection on him / his clan, so they don’t get into trouble with either Donghua Dijun (who, by all means should’ve been humiliated by this turn of events) or Jiu Chong Heaven. He does not support his sister’s decision, and in fact, does not want to even be seen supporting his sister’s decision.

Now, food for thought, okay - take a moment and compare that to Feng Jiu, who’s had a very similar narrative. When Feng Jiu goes after someone she loves, going so far as to become a maid, pretend to be a fox, and, basically lose all face for Qingqiu, and he turns out not to have loved her and he turns out to hurt her, what happens? She goes home, to friends and family that do love her. That do support her and have shown support for her, all this time. She has a family who’s waiting for her to go home, who’ll be shields for her, as Zhe Yan says, who she trusts because they’ve always been there for her, over political obligation sometimes. The Bai Family “help their family, not the one that’s in the right.” And let’s take a look at what happens when Feng Jiu runs away from a wedding okay - she blows Cang Yi’s whole palace apart, and yes, she gets punished for this but it’s no more drastic than, likely, being locked in the cave or being spanked. Her family doesn’t disown her because she lost face or because she made a political blunder.

The fact that fandom in general holds these two women to very different standards in this very similar event despite them both being just women who’re trying to run away from a political marriage they don’t want - is concerning. But that fact notwithstanding - from just these two different environments, it’s not hard to see why, in the face of certain decisions, Ji Heng and Feng Jiu make different choices. Now, as a person, I firmly believe no matter what your situation is you make your own choices. So, it’s still on them, as to what choices they make when faced with yet again, a similar situation: not being loved by the person they love. But, with any amount of compassion, you can see, very clearly, why it’s more likely and easier for Ji Heng to make the bad choice. She hasn’t had a particularly large amount of strong relationships in her past, familial or otherwise, that shows her what a good, healthy, strong relationship is like. There is no reference point.

One might argue that Donghua’s just the same, since he has had no real parents and he isn’t close to his foster family. Well, that’s just it - out of this void, where his close relationships are supposed to be, Donghua doesn’t do any better either. In fact, he screws up just as much. Now, I can’t weigh “threatening to kill yourself unless your crush divorces his wife” and “lying to your crush and changing their memories so that they forget everything bad you’ve ever done and sleeping with her using a whole different identity” against each other on a scale of, which is worse. Because they’re both bad, and it’s both toxic in a relationship - but, it seems as though the fandom in general judges them differently as well. 

With Donghua, we seem to be more capable of admitting that the things he does are mistakes. We seem to be more capable of saying “it’s because he doesn’t know what he’s doing, it’s because he hasn’t had any experience, it’s because of xyz.” We seem to be capable of understanding that his flaws are flaws, but that Donghua is not a fundamentally evil character and these flaws don’t fundamentally define who he is. We seem to be capable of liking him and forgiving him for his flaws overall. Whereas, with Ji Heng, the general trend I and Admin Lins have seen is to dislike her, even though these two characters screw up the same amount, and, I mean, for similar reasons and to a similar scale. 

And while I’m not saying people can’t dislike the characters they dislike - I think we have to to evaluate ourselves and ask ourselves the question - why is it that we are capable of forgiving Donghua for what he does, but we aren’t capable of forgiving Ji Heng? Why is it that we would rather assume that Donghua is a good person and that he isn’t making these decisions because he is bad, but we aren’t capable of the same assumptions for Ji Heng? 

One of Donghua’s major flaws is carelessness - and that lead us TO THE SECOND POINT. When Donghua leaves the valley with Feng Jiu, Ji Heng catches up and asks to be taken with them. His response implies that Ji Heng’s condition was not really a concern to him at that moment: 

A flash of surprise entered Ji Heng's eyes, but her gaze was full of hope as it directed toward Dijun. Donghua said coolly: "Living in Fanyin Valley will control the Quishui poison. If you live here for three thousand years, the poison will fade away by itself."

And also gives a response that leaves even Feng Jiu saying he’s cold:

Donghua suddenly said: "Your father asked me to take care of you before he feathered...but, I have never liked to care for someone who has designs on me."

Ji Heng's face was suddenly pale, and after a long while, she said sadly: "Yes, I understand."

At the edge of the lake, Feng Jiu stared at the surface of it. Dijun wet a handkerchief and gave it to her. Feng Jiu took it and pressed it to her face for a while, and waited for the cold to sink into her skin, and finally woke up entirely to say: "Thank goodness when I was maid at your palace, you didn't have the chance to know me. If you met me then, you would've said to me what you said to Ji Heng today, right?" And said, tentatively, "You were a little cold, when you said that."

Now, I can’t tell you for sure whether or not Donghua meant exactly to make good on it - but the implications are all there. Telling her the poison is no longer a concern and she should just stay in the Valley while he presumably leaves,  and when he talks about her father, doesn’t that sound like a threat? It certainly probably would have, to Ji Heng: “I know you like me, now stop, or I’ll never come back.” That’s what that sounds like. Now, both admins on this blog have anxiety, and, if you look at Ji Heng and how she was literally ready to kill herself at the end of the book, it’s not hard to conjecture that she probably has some mental illness. Piecing that together with what we previously discussed, it’s not hard to infer that she likely has some anxiety surrounding abandonment. 

In her mind, that might very well translate to a straightforward, he’s leaving and never coming back. One might say “why doesn’t she just stop liking him then” but that’s an unreasonable thing to expect...honestly, no one can just turn their emotions off like that, we know this, right? We can’t expect that of a person, so we can’t expect that of a character or that character would no longer be authentically human. Furthermore, if you look at the actions Donghua took in the Valley before he and Feng Jiu ever got together, I think you can see where Ji Heng’s mind might take that even more drastically. The second Feng Jiu showed up in the Valley and this coincided with Donghua’s visit, what does Donghua do? He makes her cook for him, he goes to live with her, he straight up puts up a ward to block them both from the rest of the world. He basically declares to the whole world that, “the only thing I care about here is Feng Jiu.”

Bear in mind, he visits Ji Heng every ten years and is the only thing close to a friend she has in the Valley before Xiao Yan shows up. Ji Heng has been cooking for and living with Donghua every ten year interval he has shown up. To be suddenly and quite completely shut out and removed by this person she thought was her friend, that she had feelings for, even if they were only on her part as far as she knew, is hurtful. It’s like Donghua is saying “I like Feng Jiu, and so I don’t care about you or what you do anymore.” 

Now, that’s not Feng Jiu’s fault, and it’s not Donghua’s fault. He’s free to do that, of course, and people change and they outgrow each other and they leave. But - to a person who’s been left by a lot of people, doesn’t it make sense for Ji Heng to react drastically? Doesn’t it make sense for her to see that Donghua is getting married to Feng Jiu and further extrapolate from his previous actions that he’s unlikely to visit again? Think of it if it happened to you - if your best / only friend, one that you care about a lot and are extremely invested in, left you because they found a new friend, can you truly say that you wouldn’t harbor a single bitter thought for that new friend? Can you say in those circumstances, every time, you would make the right choice? 

IN CONCLUSION, all this, and the previous essay, is not to say that what Ji Heng does throughout the narrative isn’t bad. It is bad, and it is messy, and it does hurt people. These are explanations and not excuses for her behavior. I and Admin Lins will both agree that of the two of us, I am definitely the harder one on Ji Heng. I get my little bursts of rage when I get to certain areas in the novel that, yes, I can’t soothe over even knowing everything that I know. However, I do think - that a part of evaluating reads and the flaws of each character is trying to understand them. I think I have enough faith in Tang Qi that I believe she wouldn’t put a flat antagonist character in a novel to be “evil” for evil’s sake - and therefore, when I go through my read and I see the hints of dimension, I can say, I see it and it’s there. 

In the end, sure, it’s about what everyone wants to believe. You can see that evidence and interpret it however you want. That’s how art and subjectivity and reads work - no one read is completely right.  No one read is completely objective. If someone looked at all of this and thought “nah, bull, Ji Heng did all of it because she’s just an awful person,” I guess there’s nothing to stop them. But in literature,  where every character is a reflection of a living, breathing, relatable person, the admins on this blog are more inclined toward a middle read. That not everyone is completely good and that not everyone is completely bad. That people make bad decisions because of their pasts, because of their circumstances, because of their mental illnesses, but that it does not make them, over all, a bad person forever. 

I think if I can extend my compassion to Donghua and Feng Jiu, who have screwed up all over the place throughout this novel, and say, “I understand why you did this, you’re stupid, but I love you anyway” then I can extend that very same compassion to Ji Heng. And I think, if I can say “It’s ok, give them time, they can do better” about the main characters, then Ji Heng also deserves that very same hope. People are flawed. People make mistakes. People can regret it and get better. 

[mdzs-overthink-athon]

Adaptations - Part 7: Domestic disturbance

(Masterpost)

This scene appears in:

Mo Dao Zu Shi novel Chapter 5

Mo Dao Zu Shi manhua Chapters 9, 10, and part of 12

Mo Dao Zu Shi donghua Episode 1

The Untamed / Chen Qing Ling drama Episode 1

In this scene, most of the remaining Mo clan gets turned into puppets in quick succession. It starts with some guy named Tong choking himself to death, 

and Mr. Mo (who very clearly does not wear the pants in the household) being sent to the courtyard by his wife, where he goes all white-eyed and randomly kills a dude 

(I think it’s a servant? But maybe it’s one of his kids or nephews? Sorry I can’t keep my Mo’s straight, someone help). 

While the juniors are occupied with getting him tied up, they discuss maybe sending up a flare for help from a nearby Lan senior, causing Wei Wuxian much consternation. 

Look at him. That is a consternated boi.

More under the cut.

In the midst of all this, WWX has two realizations: one, there is a resentful left arm that’s the cause of the possessions, 

and two, another scar is gone, and this means Madame Mo is now also possessed. 

The juniors send up their flare and begin fighting the now-zombified Madame Mo. 

WWX, being good with corpses, hatches his own plan to try and fix the problem by reviving Young Master Mo and his dad to fight her when the juniors can’t seem to handle her anymore.  

So you might have noticed that I related some or all of these events in the wrong order and I have no excuse for this given that I have a literal row of screencaps numbered in sequence, but somehow the chaos of this particular scene ends up flummoxing me every time. I can’t remember who dies first, when WWX wakes the corpses, when the juniors send the flare and when they do the fighting, when the hand is discovered etc. etc. I just.. brain short-circuits. Sorry. But I also have a feeling part of my problem lies in different adaptations doing it in a different order. Could I absolutely go back and check? Sure. Will I? Nah, being organized is for when I’m at work.

What the donghua and the manhua give us that the drama doesn’t: badass juniors and villainously delicious necromancer WWX.  

Observe:

What did I say? Bad. Ass.

But let’s not forget the comparable awesomeness of the manhua:

While they also fight some in the drama, the camera angle doesn’t accentuate how much they’re doing or try to show them as cool or badass - it’s just this kind of melee of white robes for a moment. 

Then we have the response when the juniors’ strength begins flagging.

Here is WWX waking up the two corpses in the manhua.

In the donghua, he’s got red eyes too!

What the drama gives us that the others don’t: The Pining. 

Where manhua / donghua WWX is super hot, drama WWX is effing adorable. Here he is being helpless at the prospect of a reunion with you-know-who:

Denial

Anger

Bargaining

Depression

Acceptance

Plus, of course, the drama curses us with the Rubber Hand of Doom.

My personal fav: the donghua. Much as I am a sucker for The Pining, this is one of our few chances during this brief flash-forward to see how skilled and awesome the Lan juniors are and let them show their stuff. And they are amazing. Teamwork. Athleticism. Speed. Skill. 

And, as demonstrated prior, the donghua not only shows badass juniors, but, owing to the medium, shows them in action, in a way that is sadly much more difficult to do in a static drawing such as the manhua.

(Source: manhua) (Source: novel translation) (Source: donghua) (Source: drama)

[irrealisms]

Onymous MDZS Ask Game: 21, 36, 53? (I am tempted to ask 2 wwx tma?)

21. A Fanon You Like oooooooh this is a tough one because I actually like a lot of the fanon! let’s go with “xue yang has a lot of fun watching xiao xingchen have nightmares about him”, because. yknow. i love them and i love an unapologetically sadistic xue yang whose domesticity fantasy sometimes comes out really disturbing. 

36. Character You Would Have Liked To Have More Background/Screen-Time see before i watched the show i MIGHT have said wen qing or wen ning but (monkey’s paw curls downwards) song lan, I think. idk, there’s not much of any of the yi city crew, because they’re “”not”” “”major”” “”characters”” or WHATEVER, but there’s even less on him than on the rest of them, since he goes from being offscreen to having his tongue ripped out with only one scene between to characterize him with. the show could’ve added more due to their choices but instead!! they removed one of the only pieces of characterization that we Do have!!! (which is that he’s touch-averse.) and as someone who writes and reads a lot of yi city fic, I just.... wish there was more to work with, yknow

53. Coolest Concept gonna be honest, I have no idea! Mostly because I.... don’t know what concepts are original to mdzs/cql, and which are common to xianxia as a genre. I’ll go with concept from the adaptations here, I think— I love how both the donghua and the live-action decided that wwx should get a VISUAL CUE for when he is doing demonic cultivation. They are so correct & it’s very very cool of him when his eyes turn red or he starts pouring black smoke. This is almost definitely not original but I do not care because it is just so fucking cool.

(BONUS: 2. What would _______ be in a _______ AU? [Wei Wuxian + TMA] An end avatar, but, like........a weird one, that doesn’t really align with Western fear-of-death so much? I am mostly not writing an MDZS+TMA au because I would have to create an entire new categorization system, since it both predates Smirke and has an entirely different cultural context for both fears and their symbols, but Wei Wuxian went avatar in the Burial Mounds, and what he does afterwards is very much.... the consequences of that. Magically causing and eating fear: very good and useful during war! Not so good once the war’s over and it turns out to be hard to quit and you accidentally kill your brother-in-law!)

[dreamingsushi]

Eternal Love of Dream - Episode 26

Siming and Fengjiu are gossiping together. Rumours has it lately that Donghua hides a beautiful maiden in his palace. Siming says that it’s a good thing then Fengjiu cut ties with him back then, really that Donghua isn’t a guy to date with an habit like that haha. However, at the idea that Donghua likes a girl, she’s kind of jelly. She gave up, right? Right? Haha. So they think it may be Zhihe, but since she was away for a long time, Siming thinks it’s not likely to be her. Then he tells her Lian Song saw Donghua in the bath rooms with that girl about a week ago and Fengjiu chokes on her grapes. Wooops, that would kind of be me? Other rumours has it that Chengyu is the secret daughter of Donghua hahaha. I love it. We need more gossiping please!

According to the information Chengyu gave her about Donghua’s schedule, the next day Fengjiu is going to find back her lost bangle. Ahli wants to go with her but she won’t take him. Riceball is angry that Xiaojiu isn’t taking him with like usual and says that lately Fengjiu has been so busy and weird. She then pretends to be Bai Qian looool It’s so fake, but oh well, she gets in. She thinks there’s just him but there are actually plenty of people and then she asks about her bangle hahaha. She’s so embarrassed, He says he does have her things. He even carries them with him hahaha. I mean... Oh that girl forgot her stuff, I will keep it in my sleeves just in case I see her around hahaha!

She tries to escape, but he still gives it to her haha. I think he had a little fun teasing her. The next day, Lian Song teases a little bit Donghua about it and wonders if he’s interested in Xiaojiu because she’s also a red fox and right she comes by with Bai Zhen taking a walk and Donghua can’t keep his eyes off her. Lian Song asks him why does he pay her so much attention and Donghua says he thinks she’s funny/interesting, a mix of the two.

Zhihe  dances for the Emperor and he’s very pleased by her talent so he decides it’s time for her, after hundreds of years to come back to the palace. He asks Donghu’s opinion, but he doesn’t care at all, he didn’t even look at her dance. Then Fengjiu laughed a little and she has to explain herself. She felt relieved for Zhihe that she could come back so easily, but also felt sad for those in her situation that don’t have any special talent.

Lian Song plays the flute for Chengyu and it makes butterflies appear. The special effects for that scene were really beautiful. She then tells him she has no feelings for Zheyan, she just admires him. Then he takes her hand and asks (well it’s more like affirming) if she likes him. She takes her hand away. She says she doesn’t. but clearly does.

Fengjiu is drunk again. Donghua comes and asks her what she’s doing. She says she’s drinking juice, but it’s actually alcohol. He asks her if she remembers the way back home, but she doesn’t really know. He says he’s going to take her back, but she tells him he’s a liar. Last time he said to wait for him while he gives a lesson to someone but he never came back for her. Then he asks her if she’s not mistaken on the person and she says she’s not and tells him he’s a bad person. Because he said she was just a pet and when she left, he didn’t even looked for her. He doesn’t remember that, of course she was a spiritual fox then. Then she faints in his arms.

She wakes ups hugging Donghua’s clothing. That last night, she was so drunk that Donghua had to send her home, but when he tried to leave, she wouldn’t let go of his outfit and they couldn’t wake her, he could only leave his clothe with her before leaving. He couldn’t spend the night there and there were no clothes for him to wear, so Ahli had to go ask his mom and dad, but they were sleeping deeply so he had to talk very loudly and everybody heard what he said. Fengjiu is extremely embarrassed.

Then Ahli brings her a letter from Bai Yi, saying it’s about time she goes back to Qingqiu. Ahli is sad hearing that news, he doesn’t want Fengjiu to leave so soon. Cute little boy. She promises to go have fun with him as soon as she’s done sending back Donghua’s clothes. She doesn’t get in the  palace and throws it at him over the wall. He thinks it’s funny I guess. Then Zhihe asks him about it but he just says that the party is over, she should go back now. She’s shook.

As Fengjiu and Ahli comes out to play, there are almost pooped on by birds. Then Zhihe comes to asks questions and Ahli tries to protect Fengjiu, but that Zhihe pushes Ahli on the ground. Wow. The nerves. Ahli is Yehua’s son, not somebody to meddle with. Fengjiu just pushes Zhihe and she lands right in the birds’ poop hahaha. I’m a child, I’m laughing to a poop joke and I am not ashamed of it. At all.

Donghua is really something. He’s always lying somewhere. Can he stay up? Am I the one who noticed that he’s like, never standing on his feet? Hahaha. It’s okay, it’s because he’s ooooooold x) Ahli comes to tell what he learnt while spying on people. They are having bets about Donghua. People are betting whether he’s going to marry Zhihe or Fengjiu haha. So far, people think he will most likely marry Zhihe. Learning that they don’t bet on her, she gives Ahli a lot of money to bet on her. And Ahli is like, I am still so young and you are teaching me to cheat? Then she says no, we do it because we can’t lose Qingqiu’s honour haha. I just can’t (; And Donghua is just behind them hahahaha. Ahli says that she never gets the first ranking on the exam and she says that Ahli never is the last name because he’s not studying buddhism. Then Ahli says, well Donghua is really good at it and Fengjiu is like that’s because he’s not normal haha. Well the word she uses is really pejorative here, and it would be used to describe perverts too, so it’s funny. To me at least.

When Fengjiu sees Donghua, she hides in a handkerchief. Donghua takes it saying he has been looking for it for a while. Ahli seeing him taking it says to be more careful, the handkerchief might hurt haha. He’s so cute. Lian Song says this is a girl’s thing, how could it belong to Donghua. Then Donghua says, that some people called him 变态(biàntài) (abnormal, pervert) and of course he would use that kind of thing haha. He so knows that Fengjiu is in there. They both leave little Ahli alone and Fengjiu’s torture is starting! Wooooops!

[mihanada]

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation / Mo Dao Zu Shi Final Trailer

“Final Trailer” because I lost count of how many of these we got lol.

If you read Chinese, you now know something about the year it takes place in (probably)! I can only read ‘Year 25′ haha. I guess the first two have something to do with the era name...

Anyways, we have the burning Burial Mounds again in this shot.

lol Gusu Lan...you really don’t like giving clear screenshots do you? So stingy! Their cloud motif flag was at a bad angle + difficult to see due to the colors in the opening and now you can’t get a good screenshot of the flag with their name on it...

So: Jiang, Jin, (can’t actually freaking read this but it’s Lan), and Nie

all four clans are here! Pretty sure we actually got this a while back, but I’m not sure if I screencapped it.

Alright, we’ve seen these shots before...

Some text I can’t read...something about 13 years later...

Ah! An extension of the summoning scene!

Mo Xuanyu is appropriately...crazed? here. His eyes are bloodshot and wide open, brow furrowed, his voice has that desperate strain in it, plus the grimace or tension in his mouth. The red energy from the summoning and the darkness gives him that sinister feel.

Can’t forget how he still has his makeup on! Instead of looking silly, because of the lighting, it looks sinister...he looks like an evil ghost himself.

Don’t think we saw this before. It’s a shot of the summoning circle, then a silhouette of Mo Xuanyu weaving before falling down.

Mo Village. The voice over is saying something about the Mo family. I think it’s one of the Lan disciples talking (sorry, can’t tell your voices apart yet...)

It’s the spirit attraction flag that Mo Ziyuan stole! It’s...actually kinda cute. I always imagined them a bit larger. Nice design though.

Is this our dear friend??

This is Madam Mo in some blue flames or something.

Ah, so this part is actually

Lan Sizhui taking off his outer garment to use against the hand. (you can tell it’s Sizhui and not Jingyi by the long strands of hair at his sideburns; Jingyi doesn’t have them.

Then we get the signal flare calling for help!

Why you gotta show sad baby Jin Ling. why.

You know, if you take this totally out of context-

I’m gonna stop there before I die of laughter or Jiang Cheng curses me or something. xD

There’s ultra pissed Jiang Cheng stroking his ring/Zidian.

You can see the design a bit better in this shot. The pattern is kinda cute, it looks like the whip that comes out from the ring.

I want to know if they ever needed to draw this guy smiling or does he just have three modes: resting bitch face, angry, angry 2.0.

I’ve always liked the Yunmeng Jiang’s purple uniforms though...

sorry for the Jiang Cheng spam

how do you play this standing up and holding one end I want to know

finally got a good shot of the Lan sect’s clouds motif except it’s on the clothes.

Lan Wangji’s pretty face!

I like this shot of his forehead band and the sparks drifting in the background.

I’m pretty sure the only way you can show emotion on his face 70% of the time is with his eyes narrowing and even then you don’t really know what he’s thinking unless you’re Lan Xichen.

Wen Ning flying to the rescue! Ok but that is a slightly terrifying sight if you were a random cultivator on that damn mountain just trying to do your job haha.

Look at those demonic eyes! And holy shit your nails, Wen Ning. Come to think of it...he’s dead. Do his nails and hair still grow despite that?

More Wen Ning because why not. The animation of him wildly attacking is pretty nice, you definitely get that unhinged feeling from it.

Speaking good animation, I laugh every time I see our dear friend’s arm flopping around. I always wondered how the heck this thing moved.

Nice fight sequence, nice fight sequence. Fluid, I can actually see all of their movements when I pause the video. Needs a gif.

Yess fight on the roof! Wei Wuxian, what were you doing, going on a liquor run in the rain.

Ah, Lan Wangji is the real mvp here. He continues holding the umbrella! lol 

Uh, considering the Lan people’s arm strength this is probably more treacherous than it seems?? xD

I love how Wei Wuxian just dodges around though, his movements are always so fluid, carefree, go with the flow - just like his personality.

Oh! The waterborne abyss scene! Very nice, very nice.

Yess, we get to see more of the awkward “flying on my sword” scenes. I still think it’s sort of hilarious but ok. um. at least it’s cooler than a broom right??

lol Wei Wuxian do you just want to be different and not wear the Yunmeng Jiang uniform or something. (I think it can be implied that he does wear it in the novel, it’s just the animation decided to go with a variation of his black clothes. notably, he at least seems to have different styles at different times in his life so they aren’t all the same outfit like is so popular in certain shows)

donghua: we must color code our characters for the viewers’ convenience

after this we get to see these two being blown around by the force in the air but I won’t subject you to seeing Jiang Cheng’s ass so we’ll move on

wait IT REALLY IS LIKE SURFING

Jiang Cheng why do we almost see more of you than Lan Wangji in this trailer huh.

But also: young Jiang Cheng! Aw, baby face. Still scowling though.

So Wei Wuxian’s eyes were...purplish grey.

that’s su she the ass. look, you wouldn’t have lived to form your own sect if this guy hadn’t rescued your sorry ass because you decided to mindlessly copy Lan Wangji and lost your sword.

Also, this waterborne abyss is sort of even scarier in the donghua just because it actively SENDS TENDRILS TO TRY AND CATCH YOU.

Ok.

So, now that we have two images at approx. the same angles of Mo Xuanyu and Wei Wuxian (young), let’s compare:

Mo!Wuxian.

young Wei Wuxian. Ignore the derpy face.

I actually am sort of impressed at how they made very subtle changes to his looks. While you can totally ID Mo Xuanyu as Wei Wuxian (they’re like twins lol) they don’t actually look the same. Mo!Wuxian does look older (he’s certainly older than 15 even if we don’t know the exact age). the young, original WWX has more of a baby face.

and, like I’ve pointed out before, he has that ahoge and his fringe curls more than Mo Xuanyu’s.

they’re still practically twins lol.

Don’t know if they’re actually going to bother mentioning Su She’s name, but here he is. lol he’s like a freaking rag doll.

also, nice shot of Wei Wuxian’s outfit from this time period?

In this earlier one you can see his sword’s scabbard and the Jiang clan’s bell (it’s attached to the belt/sash and not the sword, but on the same side as it)

I LOVE THE DETAILS OK

also the music is very nice

Who are you fighting, Lan Wangji?

Falling into a pool of water I see. That green is kind of creepy.

This is just a very pretty shot. nice perspective too

Alright there is something moving in that water! I can’t screenshot it though, it’s too dark.

WELL, that’s a wrap. That was actually a really long post omg even though a lot of this content was stuff we saw before.

Anyways, I’m really looking forward to the donghua now! ahh it’s gonna be so cool.

but I will probably have to break the live blog into 2 parts per episode or else tumblr will probably flip out on me.

[rosethornewrites]

Thursday T & G reading

The usual

Finished

Tumblr:

Bedroom, by @bloody-bee-tea

Gym, by @bloody-bee-tea

Teen:

grief, by theninjacat

I will never get over Wen Qing's death and if I never will then how do you expect Wei Wuxian to.

or

Wei Wuxian is going through it. Lan Wangji tries to help

or

Wei Wuxian is not okay and he should be allowed to say so

you, whose heart would sing of anarchy, by doodlebutt

Sizhui kept breaking the rules. Jingyi kept losing the ability to think.

Presumably, these two facts were connected in some way.

(or: five times Jingyi watched Sizhui break the rules, and one time he did something about it)

【魔道祖师】Short story: Aftermath of a snowball fight, by Artinomical

“Explain to the disciples how this was your fault,” LQR said indignantly.

LWJ had a bad feeling about what was about to happen next.

General:

mine to keep, by chubsonthemoon

Lan Wangji meets Wei Wuxian. He does not understand.

Or: my interpretation of the first encounter scene!

can't bear witness, by chubsonthemoon (2nd in a series)

Thirteen years later, Lan Wangji meets Wei Wuxian. He understands everything.

Or: my interpretation of the reunion scene!

Yiling Laozu's Hairloom, by tinykira

This is a fic that explains the reason behind why (donghua) Jin Ling uses red ribbon to tie his hair instead of using Lanling Jin trademark colour.

Ft. Jiang Cheng parenting trial pt. 36235

here, always, by piggybo

“Wei Ying.”

The dizi falling quiet is the only indication that he has been heard.

To N̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ Forget, by AmyNChan

Lan Sizhui is asked to investigate the sound befalling the Cloud Recess one night.

tired smiles (are you here with me?), by melonbun

Wei Ying continues to sleep. Lan Wangji hates that each year he is forced to watch as Wei Ying slips away from him. The further it gets into the cold months the less energy he has. He musters up a front when he can but at the end of those days he sleeps harder and longer than others, drained.

Unfinished

Teen:

Genesis, by YourLocaICryptid

Lan Wangji will wither to nothing without his mate; he knows this.

Wei Wuxian cannot know about the bond. He knows this too.

The Return of Cangse Sanren, by milesofheart

The dark figure pointed with his flute. “There’s the road. Be on your way and don’t come back.” His tone dismissed them, a threat threaded between the words.

Cangse Sanren was not often afraid. She had been afraid as a child on the street, before she was found by Baoshan Sanren. She was afraid when the spider demon cornered them earlier that night, and she thought she would never see her baby boy again. She wondered vaguely if she should be afraid now.

But mostly she was just irritated.

She started to yell back at him, but lightning flashed, illuminating the people on horseback: elderly, bloody and bruised, in torn robes of sun and flames. As the lightning lit up all of their faces, the flutist’s cruel expression suddenly dropped, and his eyes went wide.

When he didn’t look so vicious, he was quite handsome. Maybe even vaguely familiar, somehow.

---

(Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze return from a near-lethal nighthunt in Yiling, eager to pick up their young son from the inn and be on their way to the next town. But when they run into a dark figure with a red-tasseled flute and glowing red eyes, it soon becomes apparent that something has gone terribly wrong.)

what is essential (is invisible to the eye), by LadyMerlin

The man stands up and spins around so quickly he almost stumbles, and then he pushes A-Yuan behind himself so hastily that the child also stumbles. His face is pale too, but despite that, Wangji can see that he is handsome. His features are thin and he looks tired, but there is something about him that catches the eye. Wangji doesn’t know why, but he doesn’t want to look away.

“Who are you?” the man asks, his voice shaking. The child is so small that he is almost entirely hidden behind his leg, except for arms wrapped around the man’s knee, and bright eyes peeking around the side of one thigh.

“This is my mother’s house,” Wangji says, both answering the question and not. “Who are you?”

General:

But I’ll keep a smile on my shoulders 'til I'm sweaty, by hamlets_ghost (9th in a series)

Lan Xichen is back in his safe little bubble that is the Cloud Recesses and plans to stay there.

The cultivation world has other plans.

Lies and Truth, by parodismal

What happen if Lan Wangji decided to actually check Qiongqi Path after Wei Wuxian leave?

....

It leads to a domino effect towards a new Chief Cultivator

Is it a better?

Or worse?

[notdeadjusttrash-blog]

My Friend has been Falsely Accused of Tracing So I Will Defend Him

Okay I accidentally deleted the blog I posted this one because I’m a dumbass, so I’ll just repost it here even though I don’t use this blog anymore, but apparently I still have followers. Bless caches because I was able to get this back from google caches so I don’t have to retype everything. I added further evidence and refutes to claims that were not in my original post btw.

Anyways, I am making this post to help out my good friend @5ru9 aka Falco who has been recently accused of tracing/copy pasting other people’s / official art!

I’ve known Falco for over 3 years, and we’ve grown as artists together. Once in a while we give each other advice on art (thanks for the mech and armor advice and teaching me how you line and color!), but most of the time we just meme each other.

Anyways, a lot of people have pointed out that they’ve seen him livestream before, and he’s already posted some of his block outs and other wips as proof that he does not trace in his post here:

http://5ru9.tumblr.com/post/168277137427/hello-i-have-been-informed-about-a-callout-post

To further prove his claim with solid evidence, I shall present to you!

Times he’s asked for advice on his art, or I randomly decided to mention things I notice in his WIPs!

Exhibit A-1:

A Tenkai Knight he made up! I pointed out a few things I thought were awkward about the perspective in his WIP.

Exhibit A-2:

He started working on this way back in July and didn’t finish it until much later because he was working on several other pieces at the same time. I suggested lowering the eyebrows and drawing the eyes a bit narrower to get more of the playful expression he was aiming for. In his final piece here, you can see that Falco continued to refine the piece.

By the way! The reason he sometimes posts a lot of detailed artworks one shortly after the other is because he sometimes works on multiple pieces at once! And then finishes coloring them around the same time.

Exhibit A-3

Falco and I spent good time trying to figure out why he felt like something was wrong with his sketch! I thought maybe it was the trapezius and I decided to red line (or blue line i guess) it so it’d be easier for him to see approximately where i thought the line should go to fix it.

Exhibit A-4:

The gif-ing process turned white bg into blue… anyways! Falco showed me an early version of his Tenkai Knights OC that he eventually used in an April Fool’s joke to pass off as a new character in the series. He mastered the tenkai style enough that at first glance, people really did believe it was official! Like you had to get a good look to realize Shiyu was not really a real new character! Btw I had to go into my old twitter acc to find this…. (Edit: the gif wasn’t working bc it was too big so i had to make it smaller… and choppier and stuff to fit the mb max)

Well now that brings us into!!!

Exhibit B

Some of his old art!! (I’m so sorry falco i’ll be exposing your ancient art to ppl now)

Here you can see his progress from 2014 Tenkai fan art to early 2015! It starts looking more and more like the official art, which is what he was going for.

For reference, here’s what the character Ceylan Jones/Washizaki looks like:

I blocked out fan art by everyone except falco (which i marked) that shows up in this google search. Everything else is official art. The two fan arts by falco you see here are more recent, the angel one being from 2016 and the chicken one from 2017 (i think he also made a version with sonic instead of the chicken? lol). They’re both on his dA accounts btw! The 2017 one really looks like official art, doesn’t it? But it’s his artwork! He practiced a LOT to reach that point, and I hope the earlier arts I showed above this one are enough to convince you in his art progression! Side note: i only used images w/ceylan because 1. i’m biased because ceylan is my favorite character and 2. he drew ceylan a lot because ceylan is his favorite character Also you can see his handle change from s3iwashi to burningbraven. 5ru9 is is a pretty recent handle.

ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN IN THE TENKAI FANDOM FOR A WHILE CAN VOUCH FOR HIM!!!!!

And now for the last one,

Exhibit C

WHAT? WHO IS THIS???

This is my favorite character from a Chinese series called AOTU World! His name is Grey, or 格瑞。I commissioned Falco to draw Grey for me, and let me tell you it would be IMPOSSIBLE for him to have copied any of this. Why? Because the donghua is 3D and the manhua’s art is very inconsistent!

Let me show you the reference pictures I gave him to work with!

They’re all in my gdrive folder here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CqwH5KS-pHX0ZqLHQpoIZBi6W-gsU_Tz

This is all official art from the manhua, except the 3D model is from the donghua. Look at how inconsistent the references are! There’s no way he could have copy and pasted or traced this! Grey doesn’t even do this particular pose anywhere. lol. I told Falco “give him a cool sword pose”. (I’m sorry for being so vague, Falco! But it turned out great!!) The style he ended up drawing in was a mixture of all of them.

Btw!! here’s the blockout and the sketch he sent me before I sent my payment for the commission!! You can see his construction in the block out!! The arm construction and leg construction is light, but it’s there. You can also see the block out below the sketch. Notice he actually fixed the leg length from block out -> sketch?

ARGUMENTS AGAINST SPECIFIC ACCUSATIONS

LOOK, thte actual drawing doesn’t even match the sprites that closely. Pay attention to the collar especially. The whole frankensteining the image and then painting over it thing is just way more effort than drawing it himself. They don’t even match that well in the overlays. Like wow it’s such a crime to try and stay on model.

WHO WOULD EVEN NEED TO TRACE A MOUTH LIKE THAT? IT’S SO EASY TO DRAW. I CAN DRAW IT PERFECTLY JUST BY LOOKING AT IT. (well i AM an animator so I also do style mimicking)

Doesn’t the fact that you have to edit the sprites to match his artwork prove that you’re just a tryhard in making up fake evidence and not a tryhard enough at art since you think it’s so impossible for people to draw characters on model?

Yes he referenced the broom and possibly the heels from this image, but your overlays for the leg and arms are disingenuous and you know it. The leg positions are different, and the overlay doesn’t even match up. Face tracing also makes no sense. You literally stretched the mouth to try and make it fit but it still doesn’t fit. Do you really think it’s that hard to draw mouths and eyes in the DR style? DR faces are really simple to emulate. Also you fool, if you follow Falco’s artwork enough, you’d realize the way he draws bodies is actually rather consistent even as he does different styles. Especially when it comes to hands. His way of drawing hands is how I recognize his art and know right away it’s his art and not official art or a trace (also his coloring style). The heels he drew are also reminiscient of how he typically draws shoes/feet. he draws them bulkier. The other art has dainty heels. At most he referenced how backside works because he’s used to drawing sneakers.

Also come on, if all you referenced from an image was a broom because you liked the style (his is also clearly drawn by himself since you can’t overlay it on the other one. like i said he mostly used the style as a reference for how-to-broom) and you referenced pieces from many other images, are you going to list every single thing you referenced? While yeah it’d be nice to, it’s a little ridiculous to expect all 5-20 references whenever they post the image. It’s a thing where, if someone asks, you’d tell them, but it’s too much to list all of it. This isn’t a 20 page thesis.

If it’s such a crime, then holy shit sue all those people who parody other people’s comics and sue everyone who dares!!! to ever draw something remotely similar to someone else. Dang.

Art doesn’t live in a vacuum.

Okay, this one is just plain stupid. You distorted the sprite to match it up with his, but what would be the point for him to distort it just to trace? Also if he traced, can you explain the rest of the fingers that are drawn nicely but clearly different from the sprite? Also the thumbs don’t even match up. His faces more downward while the sprite is facing more forward. Also explain the turned body in Falco’s sketch, then!! And the hair! OH WAIT YOU CAN’T EXPLAIN IT BY ANY OTHER WAY THAN HE DREW IT HIMSELF!!! BECAUSE NO SPRITES MATCH IT AND YOU CAN’T FIND ANY SPRITES TO DISTORT ENOUGH TO EVEN GET CLOSE TO MAKING FAKE EVIDENCE FOR IT.

By the way, the style he drew it in is closer to the drv3 than this sprite. while it’s pretty much the same style as the older games, drv3′s art is more refined than the older games. Falco’s art is also more refined as you can see. (wow not only did falco’s art improved from back when we first met; even professional artists improve. shocker. /s)

Dude what the hell? The overlays don’t even match up even ifi you tried to frankenstein them. And these are really common poses at really common angles, and once again, must every single thing we reference from be listed in the description of every place we post an image? Let me just list all 30 videos and 50 images i used as reference for one of my prints. jfc.

As for the saihara animation based on the digimon opening animation? It was pretty clear to everyone that it’s some kind of parody. Many people when making parody animations don’t mention the original video either?? It’s a fun thing for fans of the franchise to recognize the reference themselves. Yes he could have said it was the digimon opening on the description, but at least he didn’t say he thought of the idea himself? And if you talk to him about the animation, he will openly tell you it’s from digimon. And the fact that you think it’s a trace despite how much the overlays do NOT work out is practically proof that you’re just doing this maliciously and hoping that saying he traces enough with shoddy evidence will make people believe you.

ALSO PEOPLE LITERALLY TRACE ANIMATIONS TO MAKE PARODIES OF, DOWN THE STYLE WHERE ALL THEY CHANGE IS THE HAIR AND OUTFIT, AND YET SOMETHING WITH DIFFERENCES EVEN DOWN TO THE STYLE LIKE THIS IS SOMETHING YOU THINK IS A TRACE? Do you need a new pair of glasses?

I was gonna ignore this one because it was the same as a lot of the others, but you literally erased Falco’s face line so it would match the sprite, and you covered the bigger boobs Falco gave her, and totally ignored that the angle doesn’t even match properly. Like you covered parts of his sketch in your overlay just to make it look more like it matches, but if you actually fucking overlayed it correctly, even with squashing it, it won’t fit. (Also sorry to point this out Falco, but the circles on your goggle lenses are too small compared to the sprite; Maybe if you actually traced like this person claims you’re doing, they’d be perfectly like the sprite. OH BUT WAIT YOU DREW IT YOURSELF SO OF COURSE THERE’S SOME DIFFERENCES. JUST LIKE HOW EVEN THOUGH ALL YOUR OTHER WORKS ARE REALLY CLOSE TO THE STYLE AND PRETTY MUCH ON MODEL, THEY’RE NOT EXACTLY THE SAME WITH THE SPRITES! SHOCKER...!)

HOLY FUCK. I already pointed out and gave evidence that Falco started on the Nier Automata drawing waaaaaaay before he posted the actual picture. The 2 sketches are sketches! They don’t take a super long time. I busted out 10 inktobers in 1 day. (thumbnails of my artwork below)

Look I even even lined and colored 5 fairly detailed chibis in 1 day (i did the sketches earlier though. btw i hand drew the plaid on ray. it was annoying)

At the moment I have 5 wips. They’ll likely all be done around the same time. I know Falco often has multiple wips as well, and sometimes he also finishes some of them close to each other. Some artists (like my friend Fish) can pump out extremely detailed paintings in less than a day. WOW some artists can draw at a fairly fast rate. WHO KNEW? (manga artists in weekly magazines pump out 15-20 pages of manga in a week)

He’s still developing a style; he’s mostly doing style mimics of series he likes in the mean time.

At the moment he’s mostly experimenting with the drv3 style, but he was practicing p5 earlier. By the way, he DESIGNED a phantom outfit for mishima. Who the heck would he copy that from? He made it up because he loved mishima and wanted to make him part of the gang in some AU fan art. Mishima doesn’t have artwork like this for him to trace, so it should be obvious it’s his own work.

And the pokemon and crash bandicoot ones are actually not that close. The pokemon one looks like a good attempt at imitating the pokemon style, but since he hasn’t practiced it enough, you can tell it’s a little off model because, well, he drew it himself and doesn’t practice the pokemon style a lot. Same with the crash one. Had it been a trace, with his level of control over his lines (which you can’t refute), it would have been much closer.

And you act like it’s a crime to imitate others’ art style. It’s really not. What is wrong with you? Do you want to slow down animation production by only letting the character designer draw everything? Or do you want animation where the art has 0 semblance of consistency because all the artists draw in vastly different styles? lol. What do you have against artists that try to stay on model?

LOL THIS IS ONE IS SO STUPID WHERE DO I EVEN START?

Oh, I KNOW. Why don’t I do that same pose with my own hands?

IT’S A MIDDLE FINGER, YOU IDIOT.

Just because YOU don’t know basic anatomy and can’t tell a middle finger from a pinky, doesn’t mean everyone else is as incompetent as you. He wasn’t doing the rock-on hand pose (sry idk if that pose actually has a name lol), and he’s drawn the rock-on hand pose properly before.

Closing statement

I believe I covered a lot of things and provided a lot of evidence here that Falco and his other friends did not cover in his defense against the false accusations.

I even added more counter arguments in this repost because apparently my original post wasn’t enough to convince people.

Perhaps the person calling him out meant well (no, I doubt it because they made a new side blog just to diss him because they knew if they did it on their actual blog, they’d be called out for being a jerk), but they did not do enough digging to find out if their claims were true or not (and they probably know well enough that they MADE UP THEIR EVIDENCE).

If you’re going to make a call out post, please make triple sure sure of everything before you accuse people. Talk to them first. Talk to those who know them too.

Many jobs require you to be able to draw characters exactly in the style given. Animators for example! There are multiple animators working on one series, and they all need the skill to draw consistently! Some games also have teams that need to be able to draw in the same style so they don’t have to leave everything up to one person. Comic artists often have assistants that help them draw background characters, but those background characters can’t be too different from the main style either.

As for the people who believed the call out post before, it’s perfectly understandable. I am also guilty of falling for similar posts in the past. Due to that, I decided it was best to double check before retweeting (i say retweet because i use twitter far more than tumblr these days. heck i almost never post anything on this blog) things, and if i wasn’t sure, I would just leave it be.

I hope my post was able to convince you on Falco’s innocence and all his hard work. And if you already believed him but checked out this post anyways… Thanks! ObligatoryPleaseWatchAotuWorld.

And again:

Art does NOT exist in a vacuum. All artists are influenced by each other and MANY artists, especially professionals, use a lot of references, whether it be from photographers, their own pictures, others’ artwork, life, or whatever. We all use many different resources. If you’re going to say that’s wrong, you just dismissed millions of artists in the world.

[threelivesthreeworlds]

        The more I discover and look at Ji Heng’s character - the more it aches to see how hated she is within the fandom. It gets to highly scary levels of how much she’s hated for things that aren’t even the particular points in canon that she does mess up terribly. I will always acknowledge her mess ups, but a lot also comes from the environment she lived in and the treatment from the people she loves.  (Pt. 2 by Admin Ro, a much more clearer and direct approach than Admin Lins)

To preface before you read any further, this does contain some toxic family dynamics of which there are citation from the novel. Discussion of suicide and gaslighting are also present below. Proceed with caution.

         What she does at the end, in threatening Donghua was something her mother had taught her at a young age when her mother did the same thing at Xuyang to keep Minsu as Ji Heng’s guard years ago. 

When Ji Heng was very young, her brother the Red Demon Lord gave her a guard to look after her. The guard was not of great birth, but looked very clever and intelligent from a young age, and was as a result very popular amongst the aunts and uncles' generation of elders, and deeply loved by the Dowager Queen who lived alone in the inner palace. At the time when Xuyang realized that giving Ji Heng such a pretty guard wasn't a good decision, and wanted to give her one that was uglier, the first to object was his mother. The Dowager Queen first cried and then made a fuss and then threatened to kill herself, and Ji Heng, who wasn't old enough to understand, had rubbed her eyes and started crying too. The guard, who was called Minsu, latched on to Xuyang's sleeve and tugged at it with an innocent expression: "My Lord, you've made the Dowager Queen cry. Go comfort her!" Xuyang's head was about to explode. Xuyang lost. Xuyang went with it.

        As Ji Heng was young when this happened, very possibly not leaving the palace much as she has hemophilia, she probably just saw a lot of things she never understood and took it as normal.

Chonglin told her about Ji Heng's injuries. Apparently, Princess Ji Heng could not see blood since she had been very young, and was weak. Bleeding from a small wound or scrape from falling could fill half a cup with blood, and so having been scratched by her claw, Ji Heng was hurt severely, and required serious attention and a few of Donghua's pills and magic herbs.

       We also learn through text that Minsu was impervious to poison, which was part why Xuyang had chosen to send her to the mountain while he arranged for Ji Heng’s marriage to Donghua, a thing Ji Heng never knew and led her to end up going to try to save Minsu. Also in the mountain, Ji Heng learned of her father’s concern that her brother would turn out like his father, another reason as to why Meng Hao wanted to ensure his daughter had an elopement with Minsu under the guise that Donghua fake an arranged marriage with her. 

        Ji Heng had been abandoned by her loved ones through the course of the first 100 years; being banished her from the Red Demon Clan and Minsu leaving her after a huge spat, which led her to finally enter Fanyin Valley. And after another 200 years pass, the last person who has been a constant in her life in that time was getting married and made it clear he would no longer be coming there to visit. Her reaction to this drastic to most but after years of abandonment and degrees of isolation it gives insight as to her headspace. Ji Heng not only threatened Donghua to divorce his wife, but also clear she may have truly already known he wouldn’t and was set on dying regardless with the amount of poison in her from before plus that trip, she would die within a fair amount of time. Instead, her family had to be bribed to take her back in so Donghua could get her the heck out of his life. 

Bai Zhi Dijun laughed coldly. "For the last time? But why did I hear that this morning he majestically carried Ji Heng into the Red Demon Clan's Dan Ling Palace and commanded the Red Demon Clan to accept their banished princess back into their clan, offering the Seventh Heaven's Miaohua Glass as a trade? That princess was clinging to his embrace and showed no sign of being near death!"

(side note, Ji Heng was in fact filled with poison, Bai Zhi is just going off rumors he’s heard and anger he feels.) 

        Ji Heng had become careless just like our two main leads, though it’s only her carelessness that is so viciously acknowledged because she’s the antagonistic love rival in the parts of the book that take place in Fanyin Valley that it isn’t remembered well who she was in Feng Jiu’s flashbacks of her, and that what happened in the valley wasn’t who she was. 

        She became tired, just like Feng Jiu, only the darkest part of her mind took over instead of the more rational, sensible parts because that’s sadly how mental illness works sometimes. We get into the darkest of places and make the wrong decisions, fucking up more. And especially after growing up in not great familial situation, it can be hard to remove those toxic traits picked up even when we know it’s wrong. There’s no excusing what Ji Heng did, but look at it from a different perspective than just hate because she wronged a character you loved.